Efforts to harmonise regional trade policies gain momentum

Trade and customs experts from eastern, central and southern Africa have called for speedy harmonisation of trade regimes and elimination of trade barriers to boost regional trade.The experts from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) were meeting in Mauritius to discuss rules of origin and the free trade zone agreements recently.The meeting brought together over 100 trade and customs experts from the 26 member states of the tripartite region, according the East African Community director general for customs and trade Peter Kiguta.Kiguta told The New Times after the four-day meeting that harmonising trade policies across the three blocs would enhance business and investment, and create jobs.He noted that removal of barriers to business, especially non-tariff and technical barriers, and instituting dispute resolution mechanisms were essential to improve the business environment across the regional blocs.According to Mark Priestley, the TradeMark East Africa country director, a bigger free trade area will attract more investment and make the blocs competitive.Angelo Musinguzi, a tax manager at KPMG Rwanda, said having similar trade regimes across the blocs could ease the implementation of a single customs union in EAC.“However, for any region to achieve free movements of goods and people, the other regions also have to be ready to harmonise trade policies,” Musinguzi, who is also a consultant on single customs territory tax issues at the Private Sector Federation, said. Gerald Mukubu, the Private Sector Federation chief advocacy officer, noted that the move presents a great opportunity for the private sector and should be supported by all regional governments.Currently, a technical working group on rules of origin is in Mauritius discussing the criteria that would qualify a product to be considered as originating from the tripartite region, according to Kiguta.The tripartite free trade area negotiations started during the second tripartite summit in 2011 in South Africa. The East African Community single customs union is expected to come into force early next year.

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Efforts to harmonise regional trade policies gain momentum