Regional Trade Arrangements in Southern & Eastern Africa:
Common Market of Eastern & Southern Africa (COMESA)
RTFP finances the technical services of a Senior Trade Adviser to the COMESA Secretariat. He contributes to work of the Trade division on the Free Trade Area, the Customs Union, Competition Policy and WTO negotiations as well as related activities such as providing support and technical information to the business community regarding the operation of the FTA.
Regional Competition Policy The Senior Trade Adviser has led the process to agree a regional competition policy and to establish a regional competition commission. Several COMESA member States have enacted national competition laws and established competition authorities. As COMESA integrates, these national laws may need to be aligned with the regional legislation. The Regional Competition Law was adopted in December 2004 and so recent activities (including a workshop which considered progress on the establishment of the COMESA Regional Competition Commission) have been focussed on the formation of an agency to enforce the law across the region. competition policy
Senior Customs Adviser: The services of a Senior Customs Adviser laid the ground work for the establishment of a One Stop Border Post between Zambia and Zimbabwe at Chirundu but he also undertook work to identify products of economic importance; prepared a Traders' Guide on Border procedures and did a comparative study of the Regional Customs Bond Guarantee Schemes of SADC, COMESA and the USAID Southern Africa Global Competitiveness Hub
Assistance to the Tanzania Private Sector Towards Tanzania re-joining COMESA: The Tanzania Private Sector Foundation received funding for a workshop to consider the outcome of a study which argued in favour of Tanzania re-joining COMESA. Several reasons were cited for the original withdrawal (anticipated inflows of investment from South Africa with alignment to SADC; vulnerability of certain local industries etc) but in connection with the potential benefits of re-joining COMESA, the EPA configurations and the competitiveness of Tanzania's industry were discussed.
East African Community (EAC):
RTFP is specifically focused on trade in the southern Africa region and therefore has no programmes being undertaken with EAC. However, since almost all members of EAC are also members of COMESA and/or SADC, individual member states may benefit from RTFP activities. EAC itself also enjoys the cooperation of RTFP in its role as secretariat of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Task Force.
Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU)
Initially RTFP assisted SACU by financing a range of policy studies which were used to inform the discussions of a SACU Council of Ministers' Strategy meeting. The studies looked at what it means to be a Customs Union, how SACU's experience relates to that of other Customs Unions and how outsiders perceive SACU's role and functions. One paper reviewed preparations for the WTO Trade Policy Review for SACU.
During 2006 an audit of intra-SACU trade was financed in order to improve the implementation of the new Revenue Sharing formula contained in the 2002 SACU Agreement.
All the above documents were confidential and are not available.
Southern Africa Development Community (SADC)
SADC is benefiting from RTFP support over a wide range of activities which seek to strengthen regional integration through enhancing intra-regional trade as well as trade with the rest of the world. Support provided to SADC has mainly been in the following broad areas (although specific acitivities on a Transit Management and Bond Guarantee System and the development of a single NTB Monitoring Mechanism are detailed under the Trade Facilitation page.
Implementation of the SADC Protocol on Trade (STP) A midterm review of the STP was undertaken during 2004 and 2005 and the RTFP has supported a number of follow-up activities including:
A study on rules of origin to explore ways of making the rules less restrictive. Subsequently SADC was assisted to implement the recommendations of this study through national consultations that were undertaken as part of the process of renegotiating the rules of origin to make them more flexible and simpler.
Two studies aimed at resolving problems that were encountered in the administration and implementation of the arrangements governing trade in sugar under a special Annex of the STP was undertaken with RTFP support
Study to identify and compile inventories of NTBs existing in 12 SADC countries that are implementing the STP was done in 2004. This work is currently being taken forward in the process of developing a NTB monitoring mechanism for SADC which was set in motion at a workshop facilitated by the RTFP in November 2006.
Sanitary & Phytosanitary Standards A draft final SPS Annex was produced and has been taken through the SADC structures for adoption. Related to this the SADC Seed Security Network that is working towards the harmonization of seed policies in the region (for the enhancement of trade in seeds and to improve food security) was assisted to convene a workshop that considered seed regulations, including SPS measures (The meeting was jointly funded with the USAID funded Southern Africa Competitiveness Hub.)
An inventory of SPS and standard measures was compiled and an assessment of relevant institutional arrangements in Angola was carried out with RTFP assistance.
A study to assess and identify weaknesses in Customs Administration systems that adversely affect the efficiency of customs operations was carried out in selected SADC countries. The recommendations were adopted by the SADC and were incorporated into the work programme of its Subcommittee on Customs Cooperation.
Tax Policy Harmonisation (See separate page) An RTFP-financed Tax Policy Harmonisation Adviser provides SADC with technical assistance that is mainly aimed at developing the Tax annex to the Finance and Investment Protocol. SADC Secretariat and member States are benefiting from capacity building in numerous tax issues, particularly VAT and support has also been provided for meetings of the Tax Subcommittee. Some of the major activities undertaken in this area include:
A study to assess the status of VAT in SADC Member States
A study to develop guidelines for the application and treatment of tax incentives (aimed to avoid adoption of tax incentives by SADC countries that may have harmful effects on each other)
A tax database was developed and it is live on the SADC website. Further assistance will be provided to update the contents of the database and to make the database more user friendly
Diagnostic studies that review and identify strengths and weakness inherent in the administration of VAT systems in selected SADC countries are underway. These are being done on a voluntary basis, with the pilot study done for Malawi completed.
COMESA-EAC-SADC Task Force:
The Chief Executives and technical advisers of the three regional economic communities have been meeting and sharing ideas for some time. RTFP now fulfils the role of secretariat to the Task Force which is intended to relieve the RECs of the pressure of organizing meetings, preparing Terms of Reference for recommended studies, harmonising activities etc. The 3rd meeting of CEOs was held in Botswana in September 2006 and in February 2007 the 4th meeting of the sub-committee on Trade and customs was held.
Between 24 – 29 May the officials of the three RECs and then, on the last day, their CEOs met on the island of Zanzibar with EAC as host. The meeting was well attended and was opened by Dr Ibrhaim Msabaha, the Minister for East African Cooperation of the Tanzanian Government.
Following preliminary work by the officials, the CEOs agreed on a wide range of activities and reviews to be implemented jointly. These were detailed in a matrix of Potential Areas of Functional Cooperation. RTFP, in its role as Secretariat to the Task Force, has been given responsibility for coordinating several activities (such as the web-based monitoring mechanism of NTBs). The next meeting has been set for October 2007 and will, again, be financed by the RTFP.