THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY
180. Mr S J Njikelana (ANC) to ask the Minister of Trade and Industry:
What is the progress in respect of the amalgamation of the Southern
African Development Community, the Common Market of Eastern and
Southern Africa and the East African Community in so far as intra-
African trade is concerned? NW185E
Response:
The Member States of COMESA, EAC and SADC launched
negotiations to pursue a Tripartite Free Trade Area (T-FTA) in June 2011 as
a means to boost intra-Africa trade. In advancing this agenda, member
States agreed on a developmental integration approach premised on three
pillars:
i) Infrastructure focused on the North-South Corridor with
significant progress on upgrading road links. Projects have been
identified for rail, border posts and port development;
ii) Work on industrial development aimed at boosting productive
capacity through the development of regional value-chains.
Studies have been commissioned which will inform the approach to
this work programme;
iii) T-FTA which will combine markets of 26 countries with a
population of nearly 600 million and a combined GDP of US$1
trillion aimed at launching a sizeable part of the continent
onto a new developmental trajectory.
The T-FTA negotiating principles have been agreed, the key principle
is that negotiations will take place among T-FTA members with no
preferential arrangements in place (meaning there will be no reopening of
the SADC Trade Protocol). In effect South Africa with its SACU Member
States (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland) will negotiate as a
Customs Union, tariff concessions with non-SADC Members of TFTA (notably
EAC and Egypt).
South Africa is developing its market access offers and requests, and
texts, in NEDLAC, as basis for the SACU position. Tariff offers will be
exchanged by negotiating parties after national and regional consultations
have been finalised. Negotiations on the texts for the T-FTA Agreement are
ongoing. A system to address non-tariff barriers (NTBs) has been
established and the private sector is increasingly utilizing it to report
NTBs in the Tripartite.