01 Aug 2013

Parliament has passed the Botswana Trade Commission Bill.

The bill, which was in its second reading called for the establishment of a secretariat body that would consist of units responsible for tariff investigations, trade remedies emanating from investigations of alleged dumping, subsidies and import surges detrimental to local produce, import and export control and legal matters. Debating the bill, MP for South East South, Mr Odirile Motlhale commended the Minister of Trade and Industry for having come up with such a bill, since Southern African Customs Union (SACU) revenues remained critical to Botswana’s economy.

Mr Motlhale therefore said it was important in that the formula for sharing SACU revenues had to be determined somewhere and the bill would assist in creating such an organ. “If there is one parastatal that has to be formed is this one, if you look at what SACU means to us as a country. A parastatal such as this one will be mandated with looking at tariff issues, amendments and issues of regulating imports among other things,” he said.

Although not opposing the bill, the MP for Mahalapye West, Mr Bernard Bolele said it lacked ambition as it did not bring with it a wider scope of firstly establishing properly the business of trade and trade representation in all embassies specifically by legislation.

He also said the bill would capacitate the ministry through an agency of this type. “There was a time when the survival of the country depended on the efforts of the ministry of foreign affairs to position Botswana properly in the international sphere and to protect Botswana against aggressions of that day, today the game has changed and it is now trade related and it is for this reason that I believe we must place the Ministry of Trade and Industry at the forefront of our defence policy mainly because any attack on the integrity of the nation in the current climate is likely to be trade related,” he said.

Mr Bolele said it was therefore his belief that the whole focus of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) ought to have been re-adjusted to give impetus to the new paradise Botswana finds itself within. “These issues of trade commission’s ought to be central to our diplomatic moves, and in that regard there is need to have trade representatives and trade strategies in Botswana  placed at the ministry of trade and industry,” he said.

Responding to MP’s comments, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Dorcus Makgatho-Malesu said the Bill was a way of liberalising and democratising negotiations at the table since it is very difficult to negotiate if one does not have the power to negotiate. “The Bill gives you teeth to do exactly that because you’ll be able to negotiate on the basis of strength of knowledge, the strength of an agreement in terms of what we have to be privy to as member states,” she said.

Ms Makgatho-Malesu said one of the things they had in the agenda as member states was that they had to democratise SACU in terms of industrial development, taking into cognisance the fact that  member states were all at various levels of development. “If there is anything that is going to liberalise that is because within this agreement one of the core and one of the issues at hand that we fight for is the common industrial policy that takes into account that at various levels of development we are all participating at different policy levels,” she said.

She explained that the intention of the bill was not to be ambitious, as they had to have institutional arrangements that facilitate regional building blocks. She said for Batswana to have equity, they have to produce goods, and be able to import and export goods so as to have a bigger share in the basket where all the money is collected by the region.

“And therefore liberalizing, industrialising and having an equitable distribution amongst us including the fact that these goods have to move and move freely, we have to have linkages and we have to have border posts that allow us to freely move our goods across, and this Bill will facilitate that and ensure that Botswana has a bigger slice at the table than what she has now.” ENDS