23 October 2001
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the media and on behalf of my colleague, the Secretary General of COMESA, Mr Erastus Mwencha, I wish to welcome you and thank you for coming to the SADC Secretariat.
As we are aware, we have been meeting over the past two days to continue the work we began in Lusaka, Zambia in July 2001 aimed at mapping out general principles and modalities of cooperation. When we met in Lusaka in July, we agreed to concentrate our efforts at the initial stage of our cooperation on an audit of all projects and programmes being implemented by the two institutions, particularly in the trade and transport sectors.
Over the past two days, we have shared experiences and information on progress made by the two organizations in the trade sector.
SADC Trade Protocol and COMESA Free Trade Area
As you are probably aware, SADC launched the implementation of the SADC Trade Protocol in September 2000 and COMESA launched the Free Trade Area in October 2000 in which nine countries are actively participating. The SADC Protocol on Trade will lead to the creation of a Free Trade Area by 2008. We have agreed on the need to streamline the Rules of Origin and Customs Procedures and Documentation for the COMESA FTA and SADC Trade Protocol.
Rules of Origin
With regards to the Rules of Origin, we focussed on Certificates of Origin and procedures for their issuance and how products from Export Processing Zones (EPZs) should be treated in an FTA. There are two schools of thought on this issue. On one hand, there is an argument for extending FTA preferences to products from EPZs as long as they meet the Rules of Origin criteria. On the other, there are proponents for exclusion of products from EPZs from FTA preferences because the producers are given incentives, which are not availed to those producers operating from outside the EPZ. At the same time the products from the EPZs are not allowed in the domestic market of the country where they are produced.
Customs Regulations and Procedures
We have also agreed on the need to harmonise of Customs Regulations and procedures, including customs documentation and cross-border trade issues. We agreed on the development of a model law on national customs procedures and regulation. We agreed to work out modalities on how the SADC and COMESA customs documents could be harmonised for use with the ASYCUDA software or any other compatible customs package. These measures are aimed at facilitating intra-regional trade between the two regional economic groupings.
Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs)
One of the issues that can hamper intra-regional trade is Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and we discussed these at great length. Some of the NTBs such as import/export permits and quotas are easy to eliminate. However, important measures such as sanitary and phyto-sanitary, standards, quality assurance and metrology can be used as NTBs. In this regard, we agreed to share experiences and harmonise our approach in dealing with these NTBs.
Customs Co-operation
Another area where we stand to reap mutual benefits is in Customs co-operation, through the adoption of a uniform Code of Ethics for Customs Officers in both regions, training of our customs officials and customs valuation.
Exchange of Trade Information
The meeting agreed to explore possibilities of exchanging information particularly trade statistics through the Eurotrace system. We also agreed that SADC and COMESA would invite each other to workshops and meetings on trade issues as well as cooperating in statistics training activities.
Harmonisation of Trade Facilitation Measures
SADC and COMESA have for a long time been working closely on issues pertaining to trade facilitation including Axle load and vehicle dimensions, Carrier license, Road transit charges, Third Party Motor Vehicle Insurance - the Yellow Card and Advance Cargo Information System/Rail Stock Tracking System.
We will continue cooperating on these issues to ensure as much harmony as possible between the two regions.
Multilateral Trade Issues
We also discussed Multilateral trade issues and reiterated our common position with regards to the World Trade Organisation and the 4th WTO Ministerial Meeting.
Another issue we discussed was the ACP-EU relations and the Cotonou Negotiations, including Everything But Arms (EBA). In the context of the Regional Support Strategy and the Regional Indicative Programme, the two organisations agreed to work closely together on the economic integration component. With respect to the Economic Partnership Agreement, the meeting noted that the negotiations to be launched in September 2002 would entail negotiating on a wider agenda other than trade. The agenda would include negotiations on competition policy, trade and environmental, protection of intellectual property rights, standards and sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures.
The Everything But Arms (EBAs) Initiative for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) is basically a market access issue and does not exclude LDCs negotiating economic partnership agreements. We agreed that discussions on the EPAs should take into consideration the New African Initiative (NAI) since both SADC and COMESA are building blocs for the African Economic Community.
We also discussed ways and means of ensuring maximum benefits for both regions from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) as well measures to assist member States to access the US market.
Upper Air Space Control
We noted the progress we are making in implementing Communications Navigation System/Air Traffic Management System at national and regional levels. Negotiations to link the SADC Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) network to those of other sub-regions are on-going.
Regional Telecommunications
We noted that SADC has concentrated on putting in place the policy and regulatory framework for the telecommunications sector which has led to the continued liberalisation of this sector. On its part, COMESA has established COMTEL whose objective is to achieve regional interconnectivity. The meeting agreed that these activities complement each other and therefore they should be coordinated in order to reduce transaction costs.
Way Forward
The meeting agreed on a follow-up mechanism and to this end the next meeting of the Task Force will be held at the end of February 2002 at the COMESA headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia.
P Ramsamy
Executive Secretary SADC
E J O Mwencha
Secretary general COMESA
Gaborone, Botswana