Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma is scheduled to attend the 5th Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) Summit to be held in Swaziland, on Friday.
SACU, which has been in existence since 1910, making it the oldest customs union in the world, is constituted by Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.
Within SACU, which has a combined population of 55 million people and a combined GDP of over 2 200 billion Euros, no tariffs exist on goods produced in and moving among the member countries.
The Summit of Heads of State and Government of SACU meet on an annual basis to discuss progress in implementation of the agreed work programme.
“The Summit also follows high level consultative meetings undertaken by President Zuma in 2016 to discuss the SACU work programme,” the Presidency said on Sunday.
Swaziland, as the current Chair of SACU, has successfully led a process that facilitated discussions within SACU on the transformation of SACU towards a developmental integration agenda.
As such the summit will receive and consider a report from council on its activities with the purpose of providing strategic direction on development integration in SACU and to ensure that the SACU Agreement facilitates the implementation of this agenda, the Presidency said.
President Zuma would be accompanied by Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and Deputy Finance Minister Sifiso Buthelezi. - SAnews.gov.za
