Africa Free Trade Area talks enter key stretch

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Source: Africa Review

Negotiations on the planned merger of three regional market blocs enter a make-or-break phase this week as member countries table their policy demands on areas such as customs procedures and rule of origin.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) have since 2008 been negotiating a road map to merge into a free trade area covering more than 527 million people and a GDP of about $624 billion.

Negotiators converge on Kigali to present the preferred policies of the respective countries and blocs on key areas of integration such flow of goods and products.

?The Comesa- EAC- Sadc tripartite negotiations on a Free Trade Area are set to accelerate, with text-based negotiations expected to commence in May,? Mr Richard Sezibera, the secretary-general of the EAC, said.

?I urge EAC partner states to prepare adequately and make available the necessary resources for negotiations so that we come up with a good and strategic regional position on the FTA.?

A schedule showed that technical teams of the EAC will hold separate meetings on May 3-7 to polish positions before the main talks on May 8-10.

The Kigali talks are on customs procedures, Rule of Origin (ROO) and sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS).

?The talks are particularly crucial for EAC because we are already a customs territory unlike others who are still in the lower categories of integration. We must prepare in advance to guard the gains made,? Mark Ogot, a senior assistant director at the East African Community Affairs, Commerce and Tourism ministry said.

The three topics remain a sensitive matter in overlapping trade territories because they have a direct impact on the competitiveness of a country.

Barely two years ago, Egypt was caught in a tussle with Comesa, SADC and EAC over its demands for a higher threshold for value addition on goods produced and traded within the region.

Egypt sought to have the threshold on value addition set at not less than 45 per cent instead of the 35 per cent recommended by other countries eyeing to transform the three blocs into a seamless market by next year.

Egypt later dropped its hardline stance that would have hampered ongoing talks for a smooth merger of the three.

The threshold on value addition is uniform at 35 per cent across the SADC, EAC and Comesa and forms part of the ROO that only grant goods wholly produced or substantially transformed within the region access to the benefits of the tariff-free trade regime.

Across the three blocs, the ROO recognise goods produced wholly or partially from materials imported from outside the partner states as long as the value of the imported materials does not exceed 60 per cent of the total cost of the materials used in the production of the goods.

Source: http://www.trademarkea.com/africa-free-trade-area-talks-enter-key-stretch/

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