NON TARIFF BARRIERS Kathleen Montgomery Regional Integration Specialist 25 August 2011
NON TARIFF BARRIERS
Kathleen Montgomery
Regional Integration
Specialist
25 August 2011
Overview
• What are NTBs?
• What is the impact?
• NTBs in the SADC region
• How to address NTBs
2
What are NTBs?
• Any barrier to import/export that is not a tariff
• Non Tariff Barriers vs. Measures
• As tariff barriers are reduced through trade
negotiations, NTBs proliferate and increase in
their importance
• Welfare implications – tariff vs. NTB
3
Categories of NTBs
1. Government participation in trade & restrictive
practices tolerated by governments
2. Customs and administrative entry procedures
3. Technical barriers to trade (TBT)
4. Sanitary & phytosanitary (SPS) measures
5. Specific limitations
6. Charges on imports
7. Other (procedural problems)
4
Government Participation in Trade
• Export subsidies
• Government monopoly in export/import
• State subsidies, procurement, trading, state ownership
• Preference given to domestic bidders/suppliers
• Domestic assistance programmes for companies
• Import bans
• Multiplicity and Controls of Foreign exchange market
• "Buy national" policy
Example: Importation Ban on Day Old Chicks, Import Bans on
Potatoes
5
Customs and Administrative Entry
Procedures
• Government imposing antidumping duties
• Arbitrary customs classification
• Issues related to the rules of origin
• Import licensing
• Decreed customs surcharges
• Additional taxes and other charges
• International taxes and charges levied on imports and other
tariff measures
6
Customs and Administrative Entry
Procedures
Example: Customs officers arbitrarily verify goods in transit at various
check points and break seals for 100% physical verification leading to
delays, breakages for goods thinly packed in the container etc.
Customs could communicate with the next customs point at the border
for verification to avoid 100% verification along the way. In some
instances, the verification would have taken place at the point of
loading the goods.
Example: Exports go through unnecessary, onerous and costly testing
and documentation procedures, since the Bureau of Standards,
Ministry of Health and atomic energy authority each have to issue
export certification on every export consignment.
7
Technical Barriers to Trade
• Restrictive technical regulations and standards not based on international standards
• Inadequate or unreasonable testing and certification arrangements
• Standards disparities
• Intergovernmental acceptance of testing methods and standards
• Issues related to packaging, labelling and marking
• Conformity assessment related to TBT
• Inadequate infrastructure
8
SPS Measures
• Issues related to sanitary and phyto-sanitary
measures
• Conformity assessment related to SPS
Example: Multiple SPS testing offices.
9
Specific Limitations
• Quantitative restrictions
• Exchange controls
• Export taxes
• Quotas
• Import licensing requirements
• Proportion restrictions of foreign to domestic goods
(local content requirement)
• Minimum import price limits
10
Specific Limitations
Example: Police are charging fines to transporters although
their Registration Books have been notarised by the
Embassy. Notarised Documents are acceptable throughout
the country except in specific other areas… Transporters
entering through specific border posts are affected by these
fines. Authorities in these corridors do not accept certified
copies of the documents.
11
Charges on Imports
• Prior import deposits and subsidies
• Administrative fees
• Special supplementary duties
• Import credit discriminations
• Variable levies
• Border taxes
12
Other (procedural problems)
• Arbitrariness
• Discrimination
• Corruption
• Costly procedures
• Lengthy procedures
• Lack of information on procedures (or changes
thereof)
• Complex variety of documentation required
13
Non Tariff Barriers and SADC Protocol on Trade
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Article 6: “Except as provided for in this Protocol, Member
States shall, in relation to intra-SADC trade:
(a) Adopt policies and implement measures to eliminate all
existing forms of NTBs
(b) Refrain from imposing any new NTBs
NTBs: “any barrier to trade other than import and export
duties”
Article 7 & 8: Explicitly call for removal of quantitative
import and export restrictions
NTBs in SADC Region
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Form of NTB Products affected Volume of intra-SADC trade potentially affected (% of total)
Import bans, quotas & levies Wheat, beer, poultry, flour, meat, maize, UHT
milk, cement, sugar, eggs, pasta, sorghum, pork,
fruit & vegetables
6.1
Preferences denied Salt, fishmeal, pasta 0.4
Import permits & levies
Bread, livestock, liqour, cooking oils, oysters, UHT
milk, eggs, maize, sugar, fruit & vegetables
5.6
Single marketing channels
Wheat, sugar, maize, meat, dairy, , tea & tobacco 5.3
Rules of Origin Textiles & clothing, palm oil; soap; cake
decorations; rice; curry powder; wheat flour,
semi-trailers
3.0
Export taxes Dried beans, live animals, hides, skins, wood,
coffee, sugar, maize, meat, tobacco
5.8
Standards/SPS/TBT
Milk, canned tuna, , honey, bran, , poultry, sugar,
coffee, ostriches, batteries, maize, meat, cotton
cake, beer
2.5
Customs-related Wine, salt, electronic equipment, copper
concentrate, cosmetics, medicines
5.2
Examples: Dar Corridor
• Import Permitting
• SPS/TBT Restrictions
• Multiple Agencies for clearing imports
• Various fees paid to several agencies at border
• Transit, Carbon, Licensing, Loading
• 62 police checkpoints, 12 weighbridges, 3
transit checkpoints
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Impact of NTBs?
• Increasing Costs
• Every day a truck spends waiting at a border
adds an extra $500 to transport costs
• Tariff Equivalent
• Substantial impact on welfare
• Impact on food security
• Heavily impact 1/5 of intra-SADC trade
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Efforts to Reduce NTBs in SADC
• SADC Rules of Origin
• SADC Protocol on Trade calls for the removal
of all NTBs
• Cataloguing of measures
• Adopt schedule of reductions for NTBs
• tradebarriers.org
• Lack of prioritization
18
What can be done?
• Private Sector Advocacy
• Private Sector Organizations
• Firm Level
• Public Sector Information
• What is required?
• Dialogue
• PRIORITIZATION!
• What will the impacts be?
19
Conclusions/Summary
• Importance of NTBs to restricting trade
• Prioritization is key moving forward.
• What can the private sector do?
20
Contact Information
Kathleen Montgomery
www.satradehub.org