ESWATINI EYES TOP 10 INTRA-REGIONAL EXPORTERS SPOT

MBABANE – “The ultimate vision of this strategy is to make Eswatini one of the Top 10 intra-regional exporters of value added goods and services.”

These were words of the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade, Manqoba Khumalo, when announcing the country’s readiness to trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement. During a press conference yesterday afternoon, Khumalo stated that Eswatini was set to commence trade under the AfCFTA Agreement from the January 31, 2024, following the issuance of a gazette by the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC), on behalf of the five Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Member States, including Eswatini.Khumalo announced that a copy of this gazette will be made available on request.

He said this Gazette has the information pertaining to rules conferring origin of products traded under the agreement. He said these rules were agreed to avoid trade diversion, where products from outside the continent were imported into the continent and further sold within the continent, as if they were manufactured in the continent, thus displacing African products.
Khumalo stated that he had already engaged traders to take advantage of this great opportunity to penetrate the African market. He said as a tool to enhancing trade under the AfCFTA Agreement, Eswatini had since joined other AfCFTA Partner States that are part of the Guided Trade Initiative (GTI).

Initiative

He said under this initiative, the AfCFTA secretariat assists in connecting businesses and products for import and export among the partner States. He noted that currently, Egypt, Kenya, Cameroon, Rwanda, Ghana, Mauritius, Tanzania and Tunisia were trading under this initiative and Eswatini was among the countries that were set to join the second phase of the programme. “Eswatini traders have registered their interest in being part of the initiative and the International Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade, in collaboration with the AfCFTA secretariat, Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS) and the Eswatini Investment Promotion Authority (EIPA) will be engaging with these traders to assist them with increasing their market in the continent,” said Khumalo.

The minister added that his ministry was also engaged in discussions with key exporting companies, namely The Rhodes Food Group, CONCO, Eswatini Sugar Association (ESA) and The Fridge Factory, just to name a few. He said these were some of the companies already exporting in the continent and were looking into expanding their exports into the rest of the continent. He said they would be reaching out to more traders including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and Women and Youth-owned businesses, which were set to benefit from utilising this agreement. He said the ministry was ready to support traders to identify areas where they could utilise the preferences.

Unpack

He added that the ministry together with ERS was currently planning an event to unpack this agreement among other agreements, which have been signed by Eswatini, to ensure that traders had all the information on accessing the African market. “It also gives me great pleasure to announce that the Ministry, through support from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has recently concluded the AfCFTA Implementation Strategy,” he said.

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