COMESA Council of Ministers held their 33rd meeting in Lusaka on 8 December 2014 with a call to address the Non-Tariff Barriers inhibiting intra-COMESA trade

The most frequently reported NTBs, reported through the online system are customs and administrative procedures, transport, clearing and forwarding issues. Currently intra-COMESA trade stands at only 7% and has slowly been rising since the establishment of a Free Trade Area in 2000.

Acting President of Zambia Dr Guy Scott who opened the Ministers meeting cited the Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures imposed by regional states on agriculture and tourism as major bottlenecks to trade.

“I have received complaints from the industry all the time on the non-tariff barriers that they can’t move their products because of Sanitary and Phytosanitary requirements by importing countries”, Dr Scott said.

He added: “It was disappointing to note that some countries had continued to request for the certification of Yellow Fever despite the low prevalence levels of the disease in our countries. This has made the tourism industry to suffer because it restricts movement of people.”

Dr Scott cited Zambia as one of those faced with tremendous difficulties in exporting or importing their products as a result of the NTBs. He called on the secretariat to come up with harmonized rules and regulations that will allow member states to trade freely a scenario, which will result in, reduced cost of doing business.

In their last meeting held in February this year, the Council of Ministers had directed that the COMESA Secretariat undertake an audit and impact assessment of existing NTBs in order to come up with a schedule of their removal.

Article 49 of the COMESA Treaty provides for the elimination of NTBs and prohibits Member States from introducing new ones.

The report presented to the Ministers showed that NTBS have a negative impact on trade flows and were mainly responsible for the high cost of doing business in the region.

The meeting of the Council which was held under the theme of “Consolidating intra-COMESA trade through Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises development” ends Tuesday 9 December 2014. It is expected to come up with a raft of policy decision to be implemented by the Secretariat and Member States including those aimed at eliminating non-tariff barriers.