Non-Tariff Barriers

Complaint

Complaint number

NTB-000-434  

NTB Type

2.3. Issues related to the rules of origin  

Complaint

Madagascar does not confer originating status to Citron Plus soap manufactured by Mauritius and exported to Madagascar  

Status note

During the 27th COMESA TC Committee in August 2011, the COMESA Secretariat was directed to liaise with Madagascar to implement the Council decision taken at its 29th Meeting in Lusaka to provide justification for refusing the COMESA Certificate. Currently, Mopirove is exporting without difficulty . However an official decision is yet to be communicated to mauritius to avoid the risk that Madagascar Customs can refuse the COMESA Certificate of Origin from Mauritius  

Progress update note

On 07 October 2015, Mauritius focal point reported that, joint on the spot verification was undertaken in 2010 on two occasions to examine whether the rules of origin requirements were met by MOPIROVE Ltd. In October 2014, the COMESA Secretariat appointed an independent accountancy firm, KPMG from Malawi, to undertake verification of the production process of the company. KPMG reported that it was satisfied with the verification exercise and that MOPIROVE Ltd was meeting the COMESA rules of origin requirement. The 28th COMESA Council of Ministers meeting adopted the findings of the KPMG report and the Ministers decided that the parties should abide by the findings of the verification report.


2. This NTB had been resolved upon a determination that the soap met the COMESA RoO. However, Madagascar did not recognize the determination. During the 2nd meeting of Heads of Customs Sub -Committee held in Nairobi on 19-20 June 2015, Madagascar reported that the NTB had not been resolved as had been previously understood. Madagascar was in the process of seeking a safeguard for the soap industry in the country. Mauritius expressed concern over the lack of progress on the resolution of this NTB yet the two Member States had agreed that soap meets the COMESA RoO. Mauritius informed the meeting the Mauritian company had lost 70% of the Malagasy market. The Secretariat advised that Member states had rights to invoke dispute settlement mechanisms in place, including the COMESA NTBs Regulations, or proceed to COMESA Court of Justice .  

Policy or regulatory NTB

No 

Location

Madagascar: Customs (Government institution)  

Reporting Country or Region

Mauritius  

Country specific trade issue

No  

Date of incident

2010-04-15  

Status

Resolved  

Date of resolution

2015-12-16  

Product Description

Soap

Computer-assisted translation

• English
• Arabic
• French
• Portuguese

×

Close window

 

Total value

0  

Date reported

2011-09-06 16:55  

Modified

2016-11-08 11:56