Reader query raises questions about Malawi concession

ALAN PEAT
A QUERY from a Malawi reader has meant a lot of hard work, but not the complete answer Mahomed Iqbal of the Lambat Group might have wanted. Iqbal’s e-mail read: “SA falls under the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and so does Malawi. “I have been informed by one of the SA suppliers that any locally-produced SA product exported to Malawi has special concession with regards to tariff rates on customs duties. “Do you have any information on this treaty or agreement with Malawi – which, if in place, will benefit a lot of importers and exporters.” Riaan de Lange of SA Tariff & Trade Solutions who writes FTW’s Duty Calls column, confirmed information on this topic was not that readily available, and referred Iqbal first of all to the SADC website – www.sadc.int – or to the SADC secretariat in Gaborone, Botswana for relevant information. Under the SADC protocol – which 11 of the 14 members countries have signed – the free trade agreement (FTA) is due to become operational by September 2008, according to De Lange. “As of that date 95% of all trade between the 11 signatory members will become duty-free – so effectively there would be an FTA between SA and Malawi.” But, leading up to that deadline, the 11 member countries are supposed to have begun a phase-down of trade duties from September 2000. However, De Lange believes (but cannot confirm) that only SA has complied with the scheduled phase-down, and none of the other SADC members have yet done so. “There is not likely to be much information available in the SA freight and trade sectors,” he added, “because SA business is not interested in what appears to be a so far non-existent trade pact amongst the 10 other signatory countries apart from SA.” To possibly get more clarity on the matter, De Lange suggested Iqbal needed to get the SADC trade protocols – which will outline the proposed FTA and which should be in the SADC webpage – and details of the proposed phase-down schedule, which if not on the website, should be available from the SADC secretariat.