Mauritius is planning to put in place a Trade Obstacles Alert Mechanism, to help businesses successfully overcome any obstacles they may face in the course of trading activities.

The Mechanism, which is to be operated using the existing Mauritius Trade Portal platform, is expected to be used by the corporate community to report obstacles which they may encounter during trade transactions.

The Trade Obstacles Alert Mechanism will have as its objectives the identification and elimination of trade barriers; enhancing transparency in decision-making processes; improving public-private sector dialogue and promoting inter-agency exchanges.

This advanced mechanism to ease business has been introduced to relevant stakeholders during a national workshop on 16th October 2014, at the Labourdonnais Waterfront Hotel in Port Louis.

The one-day workshop was organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, in collaboration with the International Trade Centre.

It aims to bring together some 45 representatives from various ministries and institutions, as well as from the private sector.

This new project on the Trade Obstacle Alert Mechanism is an extension of the ITC project for Mauritius on Non-Tariff Barriers which was based on a survey of operators in 2012.

It involves, firstly, the setting up of a National Monitoring Committee to ensure its smooth functioning; and secondly, the setting up of a National Focal Point that would administer the online tool, receive and scrutinise the obstacles, channel them to the required government agency and follow up with them for resolution of reported obstacles.

Once reported, these barriers would be channeled to the relevant government agencies such as Customs, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Consumer Protection, Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security and Ministry of Health and Quality of Life, among others, to find solutions, where required.

Last year, a state-of-the-art trade portal, which aimed to provide maximum information to the business community and to the public at large relating to import and export procedures in Mauritius, was launched on 6 August 2013.

This portal, called the Mauritius Trade Easy, also aims to provide information on opportunities that exist on the regional and international markets under the different agreements signed by the island economy.