Zimpapers Logo

Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
THE Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) says about 95.9 percent of all non-tariff barriers to regional trade within the bloc have been resolved since 2008. According to a status report presented to the 35th Comesa Intergovernmental Committee (IC) which concluded its three-day meeting in Zambia on Saturday, the trading block reported that 171 non-trade barriers have been recorded between Comesa-member states on the online system.

“About 95.9 percent of all the reported non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to regional trade in Comesa have been resolved since the introduction of the online system of reporting, monitoring and elimination in 2008,” it said.

“Out of these, only seven are outstanding, representing 4.1 percent of the reported NTBs. The outstanding NTBs are those affecting trade in freezers and fridges, ultra-high temperature milk, palm based cooking oil, soap, wheat flour, bottled soya oil and import licences and surcharges on various products.”

Countries whose bilateral trade has been affected by the NTBs include Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Egypt and Rwanda. In an effort to reinforce the current initiatives to eliminate the remaining NTBs, Comesa has now developed NTB regulations to provide an efficient mechanism to address these barriers.

The regulations, which have been circulated to member states, outline the steps that concerned parties should go through. “Specifically the regulations require member states to establish national focal points as well as national monitoring committee on NTBs. According to the regulations, the initial stage of resolving the NTB is the exchange of information regarding an NTB between the imposing and recipient member state.

“If the parties fail to resolve the NTB at this stage, they will engage a facilitator to provide factual information aimed at resolving the matter. The outcome of these proceeding will be enforced under article 171 of the Comesa Treaty that provides for sanctions,” said Comesa.

It said the new regulations follow a decision of the 33rd Comesa Council of Ministers meeting held in Zambia in December 2014 that sought to break the existing stalemate in resolving NTBs.

They are also aimed at enforcing Article 49 (1) of the Comesa that calls on member states to eliminate all existing non-tariff barriers and to refrain from imposing new ones. The Comesa inter-governmental committee called on governments to engage economic operators by educating and building their confidence to enable speedy resolution of arising issues.

Comesa, which comprises 19 member states, was formed in December 1994 to replace the former Preferential Trade Area, which had existed from the earlier days in 1981.

Comesa was established “as an organisation of free independent sovereign states, which have agreed to cooperate in developing their natural and human resources for the good of all their people” and as such it has a wide-ranging series of objectives, which necessarily include in its priorities the promotion of peace and security in the region.

However, due to Comesa’s economic history and background its main focus is on the formation of a large economic and trading unit that is capable of overcoming some of the barriers that are faced by individual states. With an annual import bill of around $209 billion and an export bill of $105 billion, Comesa forms a major market place for both internal and external trading.