Introduction
The Federation refers to the colonial federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The federation consisted of three countries integrated together economically, namely Northern Rhodesia (now modern day Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (now modern day Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland (now modern day Malawi) according to Boddy-Evans, Alistair. "The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland". The federation was politically much like what we see with the European Union today or the nations of the United Kingdom and lasted between 1953 and 1963. The case for a federation today or rather an economic union which this article will argue for is not to favour or reminiscent on the federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, but to take some lessons from it as part of the project of regional integration.
While the federation was arguably economically successful and saw massive infrastructure development projects the likes we have yet to see today such as the construction of Lake Kariba, one of the largest man made dams in the world, the federation's wealth was not equally distributed and the majority population did not benefit from this economic union as it was still under colonialism ruled by a minority clique mainly headquartered in Salisbury (now Harare). However today with all three countries now independent is there a way for this federation to come into existence as they all share similar historical backgrounds and strong family ties with many of each countries nationals residing in each others countries. For example many Zimbabweans have Malawian ancestry and Zimbabwe and Zambia are often called "siamese twins" as has been stated often by each of their leaders. All the ingredients seem to be in place for a federation between these three countries to be reinvented or an economic union in the form of a customs union with one of the key components being the free movement of goods and people.
This is actually an aspiration of the African Union as part of its goal for Africa to be united, hence the formation of regional organisations to achieve this gradually. However the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been moving much slower than other regional blocs such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the East African Community (EAC) where there has been increased regionalism and in the case of the EAC the removal of barriers to entry for Countries in this bloc which include Kenya and Tanzania. The SADC has only gone as far as a Free Trade Area implemented in 2008, albeit not fully, but the move to a customs union which the SADC wanted to be implemented by the year 2010 as one of its milestones remains a pipe dream. I discussed some of this in my masters thesis and the possible reasons for this delay. After a long analysis this opinion piece seeks to discover whether a customs union or economic union (A Federation maybe more complex so I will rather dwell on a customs/economic union) as a pathway to greater cooperation and integration of the greater African region.
Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chinono emphasised the benefits of economic integration between the three countries on his Twitter account just recently on April 28, 2023 and said "So if the 3 countries removed border barriers today and synchronized their economic life, they would be able to negotiate much better deals against the rest of the world". This will open up the three countries to a larger market to trade in rather than solely from their geographic locations.
Customs Union
According to the corporate finance institute "A customs union is an agreement between two or more neighboring countries to remove trade barriers, reduce or abolish customs duty and eliminate quotas".
At present there are no tangible integration agreements that specifically link the three countries. The closest integration agreements at present is the three countries membership to the SADC. This is the main institution driving regional integration projects in the region. However many of its milestones have been delayed, including a proposed SADC Customs Union which should have been established by the year 2013, 10 years ago. This is made complicated by the fact that there are 11 different tariffs in the SADC which makes a SADC Customs Union, not to be confused with the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), difficult as the SADC would need a Common External Tariff (CET) to make it a reality. According to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) a CET is "a tariff rate uniformly applied by a common market or customs union to imports from countries that are not part of the union".
Hence this opinion piece proposing an economic union between the three countries as part of a greater integration goal that aligns with the SADC Customs Union and the African Unions integration goals as a whole as part of the starting process.
Size matters
One of the arguments for an economic union between the three countries is access to a larger market and giving businesses greater access to a larger consumer base without going through the necessary hurdles or economic barriers when trading between different countries. To take this into perspective let us first pay attention to the geographic size and population this potential union would be. Malawi is 118484km², Zambia is 752614km² and Zimbabwe is 390757km². This makes a total area of 1261855km². This would make this union slightly larger than South Africa which is 1221037km². In terms of population, Malawi has a population of approximately 20 million, Zambia 19.5 million and Zimbabwe 16 million giving this potential union a total population of approximately 55.5 million which is a huge market if well managed with sound leadership.
"Free movement"
A customs union also allows free movement of resources such as capital and labour between countries. The challenge comes with implementing the CET and empirical examples of other regions tells us this can be implemented differently with the European Union covering all goods while Turkey's Custom Union with the EU does not cover coal for example. This vividly displays the complexities that Malawi, Zambia and zimbabwe will have to contemplate and negotiations could take years to implement. Another aspect of a customs union is giving up some form of national sovereignty for the need for greater regional integration which countries such as Zimbabwe will find difficult to initiate as its government has a solid nationalistic agenda which includes 'protecting its sovereignty'. While trading more amongst each other in a union has its advantages, a disadvantage may arise should an efficient non-member state (for example South Africa) from outside of the union that sells cheaper products trades less than more expensive local suppliers within the union. As a result of this trade diversion this could see price increases in the union as local suppliers products could prove to be more expensive than products from outside the union.
Conclusion
The proposed customs union between Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe is indeed feasible and in hindsight of the research available I do believe that this union should be reality or that the three countries can hopefully adopt traits that could further strengthen regional integration. A future recommendation is for the three countries to not only attain for a customs union and take further steps towards a monetary union and create a unified currency. This study proposes for it to be called the "Kwacha" as Malawi and Zambia already use their version of the Kwacha. The Zimbabwean dollar has not been successful hence doing away with it entirely in favour of a more regional based currency with checks and balances to prevent economic turmoil, hence my support for the three countries to use a unifying currency.
I believe more broader economic unions such as the proposed SADC Customs Union and beyond will not be attained when other countries within the continent cannot even come together on a less broader platform hence my support for this proposed customs union as part of the greater regional integration projects on the continent.
