SACU: Deadman walking?

It is well known that African trade ministers love signing trade agreements. These agreements cement relationships with neighbours, they increase trade and they increase local competitiveness as domestic firms  have to compete with their regional peers. All these are good things, so signing more trade agreements must be a good thing.

Unfortunately, this love of trade agreements does not extend to actually liberalising trade, and has meant that some African countries have signed multiple trade agreements that overlap so much that they have resulted in what trade experts commonly refer to as the Great African Spaghetti Junction where there are now so many overlapping and competing trade agreements that business people hardly know which one to use.