REGIONAL-INTEGRATION IN POSTAPARTHEID SOUTHERN AFRICA - THE CASE OF RENEGOTIATING THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN CUSTOMS UNION

Regional economic cooperation and integration throughout southern Afri ca is experiencing a fundamental realignment in the post-apartheid era . This paper examines what is widely regarded as one of the most effec tively 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 extreme ly important for South Africa and crucial for the BLNS countries. Sinc e the late 1970s, however, the member states of SACU have been dissati sfied with its functioning and performance. lit the context of the pre sent renegotiations, the current paper examines some of the key featur es of the Union and the positions of BLNS and South Africa. It is argu ed that SACU cannot be understood in regional terms alone. Multilatera lism 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.