Ratifications from at least 14 countries are still required before the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement (TFTA) can enter into force. According to Geoffrey Osoro of the East African Community (EAC) secretariat, Egypt, Burundi, Botswana, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa have so far ratified the agreement launched in June 2015. While this proposed agreement between the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Southern African Development Community (SADC) and EAC has synergies with the newly launched African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), it does stand as a separate agreement altogether. Osoro said to date negotiations had been concluded for 5030 of the total total 5387 tariff lines, while a draft manual on the application of Tripartite FTA Rules of Origin had been finalised. Working procedures for implementation of the FTA were under way. But, he said, all of the developments had yet to be presented and endorsed by the Tripartite Forum. Despite all of the requirements still outstanding, hopes are high that the TFTA will be operational in early 2020. Osoro said several countries had indicated they would ratify the agreement soon, but no timelines had been forthcoming. Francis Mangeni, director of trade and customs with Comesa, has reportedly said that at least 11 of the 14 countries outstanding are expected to ratify the agreement before the end of the year. The TFTA has not been an easy process and has faced a variety of challenges in the past few years. The EAC-Sacu tariff negotiations were only concluded and accepted in June this year after 15 technical meetings, six senior delegation meetings and two ministerial level negotiations. “The negotiations were difficult and spanned a number of years,” said Osoro. Commenting on why there had been so many stumbling blocks in the TFTA, resulting in the slow progress, he said one of the issues was expectations of the different regions. Using the EAC-sacu tariff negotiations as an example, he said when exchanging tariff offers Sacu’s level of ambition was 87.19%. “That is lines offered at free entry into force and under five-year tariff phase-down. The EAC’s level of ambition was 90.25%.” This brought the negotiation to a standstill until Sacu had undertaken to review its tariff offer to 90%. There was also a lot of debate around tariff quotas for beef – another contentious issue on the negotiation table. “The EAC offered Sacu a tariff rate quota of 20 tons for chilled or fresh boneless beef. Sacu requested 1030 tons. They finally settled on a quota of 515 tons.” Another stumbling block was the automobile sector with one region wanting it included in the tariff offer and the other not. “It was finally resolved through an agreement to build a Sacu-EAC motor vehicle strategy,” said Osoro. “They are now in the process of developing a concept note on how this strategy will be developed.”
INSERT: The negotiations were difficult and spanned a number of years. – Geoffrey Osoro