SADC ministers of industry and trade meeting in Maputo recently reached consensus on a special arrangement that will allow four countries limited duty-free access into the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) for exports of textiles and clothing. The development is in line with the implementation of the Trade Protocol, which came into force in September last year, paving the way for the creation of a free trade area in SADC over an eight-year period. Meeting in Maputo July 2 to deliberate on outstanding issues on negotiations on the Trade Protocol, the ministers agreed that Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia (tagged the MMTZ countries) will export duty-free quotas of their textiles on the basis of what is termed a “single stage transformation” rule of origin. This rule is used to ensure that member states at least add a certain minimum value of local content to imported products before they can

Southern Africa gets ready for Trans-Frontier park

In an effort to re-create a huge environmental region in southern Africa, plans are steaming ahead to “uproot fences” bordering Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe in preparation for the launch of a massive cross-border conservation area. The Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou (GKG) Transfrontier Park brings together Zimbabwe’s Gonarezhou National Park, South Africa’s Kruger National Park and Mozambique’s Coutada 16, into a single conservation and wildlife area that stretches across three international borders. The transfrontier park aims to re-establish ancient animal migration routes, disrupted by fences set up to enforce human political divisions in Africa. The plan is for all three countries to manage the GKG park together, as a single ecological system. The natural system will hopefully strengthen the wildlife of the area and provide basis for tourism, jobs and revenue for the poor rural people that live on the borders of the three national parks. (Mmegi)

re-export to other SADC countries. The actual quotas will vary on the basis of current production capacity and the arrangement will be in place for a period of five years commencing August 1. Similarly, Mauritius and Zimbabwe, which are considered to be at a higher level of development than the MMTZ countries, were granted an accelerated tariff reduction for their exports to SACU but on a more strict “double stage trans-formation” rule of origin with no quotas. In other words, the two countries are expected to have more substantial trans-formation of their products than 

the MMTZ before they can export to the SACU market. SACU comprises Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa. The ministers also decided that fur-ther consultations on wheat flour should take place before a final decision can be made. With regard to the forthcoming World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference, a separate meeting was set for South Africa where the ministers will map out a common SADC position on the issues to be discussed. The WTO meeting will be held in November 2001 in Doha, Qatar.

Dr.Prega Ramsamy, SADC Executive Secretary, and Erastus Mwencha, his Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) counterpart, met recently to discuss a framework of cooperation between the two regional groupings. The meeting was held in Lusaka during the OAU summit as a follow-up to the meeting in May between then COMESA chairperson Sir Anerood Jugnauth, prime minister of Mauritius, and SADC chairperson, President Sam Nujoma of Namibia. The earlier meeting agreed to establish a task force at the secretariat level, on areas of joint cooperation and activities.

The task force is intended to meet twice-a-year alternating between Lusaka and Gaborone. It is also expected to carry out an audit of all projects and programmes being implemented by the two institutions. Mwencha and Ramsamy agreed at their Lusaka meeting on the composition of the task force and the way forward. They also decided how the audit would be done and that it should be completed by end of September. The next meeting in Gaborone in October would concentrate on trade and customs co-operation between the two economic bodies. (The Post)

Lesotho’s Queen Mother, Mamohato Bereng Seeiso, says that de-spite the seemingly dominant role women play in day to day lives, they continue to suffer from discriminatory legislation, biased customary laws and maleoriented cultural prejudices. Speaking at a recent seminar on the gender aspects of HIV/AIDS, the Queen Mother said married women still hold minority status in law in Lesotho and may not enter any contractual agreements without the consent of their husbands. “When we look at both public and private employment, we realize that women are largely marginalized. There are dis-proportionately fewer women than men

in senior positions and policy-making positions across all sectors of our economy,” she said, adding that the situation has tended to deny equal opportunities to women’s participation in national development. “Our greatest concern, is the great disparity in the distribution of economic benefits, and the preponderance of women in deprivation. It is my conviction that all of us here can bear testimony to the distinguishing feature of Basotho women and one of which we are justly proud, that women in Lesotho play major roles in both social and economic activities.” (Mopheme/The Survivor)