08 September 2010

Trade Negotiations

Common  Negotiating Mechanism

Article 31 of the 2002 SACU Agreement envisages the establishment of a Common Negotiating Mechanism (CNM) based on the understanding that in the implementation of the 2002 SACU Agreement, no individual SACU Member State can enter into a preferential trade agreement with a third party without the prior consent of all the other Member States.

The SACU Council took an in-principle decision that all trade negotiations with third parties must be conducted with SACU as a whole.