Times Of Swaziland: SA’S TRADE WITH BELN SHOWS R14.5BN BALANCE

SA’S TRADE WITH BELN SHOWS R14.5BN BALANCE
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Nhlanganiso Mkhonta on 06/01/2025 08:18:00


MBABANE - South Africa’s trade with Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia
(BELN) for November 2024 shows a preliminary trade balance surplus of R14.5
billion.
These countries are considered ‘BELN’ within the Southern Africa n Customs
Union (SACU), which means they share a common external tariff and customs
revenue pool. According to the preliminary trade statistics for November 2024
released by SARS last week, the R14.5 billion preliminary trade balance surplus
for November 2024 was a result of exports of R20.7 billion and imports of R6.2
billion. Exports increased by R0.9 billion (4.6 per cent) between October and
November 2024 and imports decreased by R0.3 billion (-5.0 per cent) over the
same period.
Compared
The preliminary cumulative trade balance for 2024 was a surplus of R128.2
billion, compared to R118.9 billion in 2023. It is worth noting that South
Africa is Eswatini’s main trading partner, whereby SA exports to Eswatini
mostly including refined petroleum, corn and electricity, while major imports
from Eswatini to SA are raw sugar, scented mixtures and sawn wood. SACU is the
oldest customs union in the world, established in 1910 between five member
States: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. The union allows
these five countries to share trade-related customs, and excise revenue and for
the free movement of goods and services within the union. All customs and excise
duties are collected in a common revenue pool and shared among the countries
according to a revenue-sharing formula. South Africa is the largest contributor
to the pool, making up 97 per cent of the total contribution, followed by
Namibia at 1.4 per cent, Botswana at 1.0 per cent, Lesotho at 0.4 per cent and
Eswatini at 0.2 per cent.
Highest
It is worth noting that for the 2024/2025 financial year, Eswatini again
received the highest SACU receipts. It was reported that in this financial year,
Eswatini will receive a total of E13.06 billion in SACU receipts.  Compared to
the 2023/2024 level, SACU revenue for 2024/25 grew by 115 per cent. In the
2023/202/4 financial year, the country’s SACU receipts were E11.75 billion and
were 102 per cent higher than the E5.8 billion of 2022/2023. All customs, excise
and additional duties (trade taxes) collected in the SACU common customs area
are paid into the common revenue pool and shared among member States. Member
States’ shares of the pool is disbursed or determined by the SACU
agreement’s revenue-sharing formula. The current revenue-sharing formula has
three components: The Customs Component, the Excise Component and the
Development Component. The Customs share is allocated based on each country’s
share of intra-SACU imports.