tralac presented a short course on the Tripartite Free Trade Area (T-FTA) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania during the week of 22-26 July 2013, at the request of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT). The programme was funded by DANIDA.

The programme covered the following issues:

• Overview of the T-FTA: scope and coverage of the three pillars of the T-FTA (market integration, industrial development and infrastructure)

• Review of the Negotiating Principles, modalities and guidelines; a review of the clarified Negotiating Principles (including the acquis, variable geometry)

• Legal and institutional architecture of the proposed T-FTA (including dispute resolution)

• Rules of origin

• Industrial development

• Infrastructure (including energy)

• Implementation issues

Tanzania is a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as well as the East African Community (EAC). As members of a customs union, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi will negotiate as a collective to preserve the integrity of the EAC common external tariff.

Participants came from the following government ministries, trade-related agencies and private sector organisations:

Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT), Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Ministry of East African Community (MEAC), the President's Office (Planning Commission), Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives (MAFC), Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA), Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), Confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI), Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA), and the media.