This note provides an overview of the state of play of the political process on NTM policies in the SADC region and presents a non-technical summary of methodologies to assess the regulatory distance between members of a free trade agreement and the potential greater economic benefits from reducing NTMs. The note also contains a discussion of the potential way forward in the SADC region on NTMs.

It was prepared under a joint project of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Assessment of NTM’s Potential for Regional Integration in SADC Region.

The purpose of the project was to develop a strategy and to conduct preparatory work to support deep regional integration by systematically addressing non-tariff measures (NTMs).

This note is based on three papers that were prepared under the project:

• Erasmus and Viljoen (2014) provide an analysis of the state of play of the political process on NTM policies in the SADC region and identify stumbling blocks for implementation.

• Cadot et al. (2015) develop quantitative and qualitative methodologies to assess the regulatory distance between members of a free trade agreement and to identify potential areas of deep regional integration in merchandise trade with respect to NTMs; they also quantify the ad valorem price effects of NTMs and develop a methodology to identify particularly harmful NTBs.

• Vanzetti et al. (forthcoming) assess the potential greater economic benefi ts from realizing deep integration.

The UNCTAD-SADC-GIZ Workshop on Non-Tariff Measures “Deep” Regional Integration on 12 August 2014 in Gaborone, Botswana, aimed to validate the studies and to contribute to the development of a strategy to support the political process of harmonizing or reducing NTMs in the SADC region.