Non-Traditional barriers hinder Africa’s regional trade: official

Non-tariff barriers related to health and quality standards of foodstuff commodities have contributed to low intra-trade in Africa's largest trading bloc, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), a senior official said on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe is the members of Comesa.

Xinhua reported that Nagla El Hussainy, COMESA assistant secretary-general in charge of administration said trade restrictions related to health and quality standards of foodstuff commodities constitute nearly 80 percent of the reported non-tariff barriers in the region and has contributed to suppressed intra-trade in the regional bloc.

    "Such non-tariff barriers include outright import bans and others whose application results in increased trading costs or frustrations to investors," she said during the opening of the second committee meeting of the Breaking Barriers Facilitating Trade Project in Lusaka, the Zambian capital.

While revealing that a number of non-tariff barriers are reported through an online monitoring system, the official said many are hidden and hardly reported and attributed the low intra-COMESA trade, which is less than 12 percent, to the non-tariff barriers.

The Breaking Barriers Facilitating Trade Project is aimed at helping governments and other stakeholders to monitor both the direct and hidden non-traditional barriers that related to sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical standards.

The official added that the project was important as it was the core of trade facilitation work under regional integration, adding that the initiative will complement the broader trade facilitation initiatives under the integration agenda.