Building capacity to help Africa trade better

The proposed Tripartite Non-tariff Barrier Elimination Mechanism: An Evaluation of Legal Texts and Practice

Trade Briefs

The proposed Tripartite Non-tariff Barrier Elimination Mechanism: An Evaluation of Legal Texts and Practice

The proposed Tripartite Non-tariff Barrier Elimination Mechanism: An Evaluation of Legal Texts and Practice

Registration to the tralac website is required to download publications.

One of the priority areas of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) is the elimination of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to address the impact of these barriers on the cost of doing business in the region. In order to do so the TFTA Draft Agreement and its Annex 3 make provision for an online NTB reporting, monitoring, and eliminating mechanism. This mechanism has been developed to address the shortcomings in the respective NTB elimination systems of the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The TFTA NTB mechanism has been hailed as a vast improvement on the NTB elimination mechanisms of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs). The new mechanism aims to create an accessible online reporting mechanism, it establishes various national and regional institutions to administer the operationalization of the mechanism, and it wants to formalise the complaint resolution process. The TFTA Draft Agreement goes beyond the existing commitments of the respective RECs but various caveats about its effectiveness remain.

The aim of this trade brief is to examine the content of Annex 3 of the TFTA Agreement, to trace its evolution, and to assess its potential as an effective instrument for eliminating NTBs. The efficacy of the TFTA online NTB mechanism will be evaluated in terms of the extent to which the shortcomings in the existing mechanisms of the EAC, SADC and COMESA will be addressed, the elimination of current NTBs, and whether the mechanism will ensure that member countries will refrain from implementing new NTBs.


Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.

Contact

Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel +27 21 880 2010