Survey on NTBs in Sadc, Comesa and EAC

SURVEY OF NONTARIFF BARRIERS EXPERIENCED IN the SADC, COMESA and EAC Regions

Terms of Reference

The main objective of the survey is to identify and analyse the nature and scope of Nontariff barriers (NTBs) that hamper intraregional trade in COMESA, EAC and SADC, thus impairing the ability of their Member States to optimise on gains from the trade preferences offered through their respective trading arrangements. A total of twentyfive countries will be surveyed. All three regional economic communities (RECs) are currently at various stages of developing formal / structured mechanisms for identifying, monitoring and eliminating NTBs and are collaborating closely in this process. It is envisaged that these efforts will ultimately result in the adoption of a single NTB monitoring and elimination mechanism that will cover all three RECs.

Inventories of NTBs that existed in fourteen countries 1 that are members of SADC and/or EAC were compiled during 2004 and 2005. The RTFP is providing support to update these inventories, which will be done concurrently with surveys to compile complete inventories for 11 COMESA 2 countries that are not members of either SADC or EAC and have not been surveyed before.

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