Non-Tariff Barriers

The Mechanism for Reporting, Monitoring & Eliminating Non-Tariff Barriers

The following Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are integrating the economies of their member states into a single enlarged market through the grand Tripartite Free Trade Area (FTA):

• Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
• East African Community (EAC)
• Southern African Development Community (SADC)

Identification, removal and monitoring of Non-Tariff Barriers to trade by the Member States in the Tripartite Community is one of the priority areas for policy harmonisation and coordination under the Tripartite framework. With tariff liberalisation largely achieved, the challenge remains to eliminate non- tariff and other barriers to trade that contribute to the high cost of doing business across the region thereby inhibiting intra/inter -regional trade.

To this end, COMESA, EAC and SADC are implementing an Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) reporting, monitoring and eliminating mechanism which incorporates concrete timelines for the removal of NTBs. All three RECs have established NTB monitoring mechanisms to address NTBs.

The online NTBs reporting, monitoring and eliminating mechanism, developed for the REC Tripartite, is available on this website. The web-based NTBs mechanism will enhance transparency and easy follow-up of reported and identified NTBs and NTMs.

How the mechanism works

The mechanism enables stakeholders to report and monitor the resolution of barriers encountered as they conduct their business in the COMESA, EAC and SADC regions. It enhances transparency and easy follow-up of reported and identified NTBs and NTMs. This web-based NTBs reporting, monitoring and eliminating mechanism is accessible to economic operators, government functionaries, academic researchers and other interested parties.