RTFP

Non Tariff Barriers (NTBs):

Identification of what and where the NTBs are and how to reduce them:

NTBs hamper intra-regional trade because they diminish the potential benefits which could be derived from the trade preferences offered through SADC, COMESA and EAC. These regional economic communities are all developing mechanisms for dealing with NTBs and are collaborating closely in the process.

In November 2006, SADC Secretariat held a meeting (financed by RTFP and at which COMESA was present and EAC invited) to develop an Action Plan for the Elimination of NTBs. Proposals for notification, monitoring and negotiation were agreed as well as a mechanism to implement an Action Plan – particularly in respect of those NTBs which had already been identified. (Inventories of NTBs were carried out in 14 SADC and EAC member States by Imani Development Limited and Austral of Mozambique in 2004 and 2005 and were financed by RTFP.)

Following on from this and subsequent discussions in the COMESA, EAC & SADC Task Force a survey of NTBs experienced in each of the 3 RECs has been financed by RTFP. The study was divided into two main groups and was concluded in July 2007:

• Group One (updates and re-verification of the 2004 and 2005 studies):
  SADC and EAC Countries, excluding DRC. In addition, a review of the COMESA harmonised transit documentation and other related trade facilitation instruments will be done for those countries which are also members of COMESA.
• Group Two (a full NTB study): Burundi, Comoros, DR Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Rwanda, Seychelles and Sudan which are not members of either SADC or EAC and/or which were not surveyed before.

 The two consultants who undertook the study (Imani Development with Simon Ihiga of Kenya) were present at a meeting of COMESA member States (financed by RTFP and held in Nairobi on 27 – 29 June) at which they presented their findings as well as a draft Action Plan for the implementation of COMESA reporting on NTBs.

At the same time, a company has been contracted to design, set up and run an NTB web-based database (serving COMESA , EAC and SADC). The database should enable the identification of NTBs which have arisen; enable those who experience NTBs to report them and monitor the progress on their removal as well as making the administration of NTB reporting and removal easier. It is hoped that the database will have been finalised and beavailable on the web by the end of August 2007.

A medium term technical assistant has been contracted by RTFP to implement the system through data entering, monitoring and liaison with member States. A specific term of reference is that she will facilitate the exchange of NTB information between the three RECs.