‘Toothless’ system loses the battle against non-tariff barriers

Non-tariff barriers (NTBs) are fast becoming one of the biggest challenges facing the road transport industry in sub-Saharan Africa, seriously hampering trade as they lead to increased costs. According to Barney Curtis, executive director of the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta), complaints are flooding into a system launched by the Tripartite alliance that comprises the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Already identified as a top priority in 2008, NTBs refer to non-tariff-related trade restrictions resulting from prohibitions, conditions or specific requirements that make importation and exportation of goods difficult or expensive. The elimination of these barriers is part and parcel of the system, but said Curtis, this was not really happening at ground level. “The system has played a major role in allowing NTBs to be reported, but it is not leading to the NTBs being eliminated. It has yet to prove its worth in this regard,” he explained. “ Through the system the road transport industry can report any NTB that is experienced anywhere in southern and East Africa and automatically it goes through a process that determines if it is a valid NTB. Once this process has been completed it is registered and the system makes contact with the offending country, which has the opportunity to respond. More often than not countries will have valid and legal reasons for having introduced the NTB. The system, however, accepts their response and the matter is then closed. “The system has no real teeth,” said Curtis. “Just because a country has an acceptable reason for a levy or a charge it has implemented does not mean it is not an NTB. The implementation of many of the regulations that are considered NTBs may very well be legal in the country implementing them, but that does not make them acceptable from a regional perspective.” CAPTION Barney Curtis ... ‘The challenge continues to be how to eliminate nontariff and other barriers to trade.’