Regional integration in post‐apartheid Southern Africa: the case of renegotiating the Southern African customs union

Regional economic cooperation and integration throughout southern Africa is experiencing a fundamental realignment in the post‐apartheid era. This paper examines what is widely regarded as one of the most effectively functioning trade arrangements in Africa: the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) between Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS) and South Africa. It is shown that the Customs Union is extremely important for South Africa and crucial for the BLNS countries. Since the late 1970s, however, the member states of SACU have been dissatisfied with its functioning and performance. In the context of the present renegotiations, the current paper examines some of the key features of the Union and the positions of BLNS and South Africa. It is argued that SACU cannot be understood in regional terms alone. Multilateralism and international regionalism, although associated with different modes of international regulation, have an important influence on the nature and evolution of trading arrangements in the sub‐continent.