Non-Tariff Measures and Regional Integration in the Southern African Development Community

This note provides an overview of the state of play of the political process on non-tariff measure (NTM) policies in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). We analyse the legal setup and respective challenges affecting the implementation of SADC agreements with respect to NTMs. On the one hand, we look at systematic and coherent policy design regarding sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, technical barriers to trade (TBT), harmonization and mutual recognition. On the other hand, we analyse commitments, institutional structures, mechanisms and support needed to eliminate policies and procedures that economic operators report as non-tariff barriers.

We also present a non-technical summary of methodologies to assess the regulatory distance between members of a free trade agreement and the potential greater economic benefi ts from reducing NTMs. Our analysis indicates that “deep” regional integration regarding NTMs may bring about signifi cant increases in welfare and employment for all member States. Considering the member-driven nature of SADC, the note also contains a discussion of the potential way forward in promoting NTM-related integration in SADC in the short- to the long-term.

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