Non-Tariff Barriers

Complaint

Complaint number

NTB-000-352  

NTB Type

2.8. Lengthy and costly customs clearance procedures  

Complaint

The cabotage law applied by SADC Member states contributes to high transport costs. The law does not allow an empty truck to carry back a load from a third country. For example, a South African truck dropping off a load in Namibia cannot pick up a load in Namibia destined for Botswana even though this truck is using trans Kalahari Highway linking the two countries  

Status note

SADC secretariat responded that : the customs term cabotage as stated in Specific Annex E, Chapter 3 of the revised Kyoto Convention, is applied for imported goods that have not been declared under the condition that they must be transported in a vessel other than the importing vessel in which they arrived in the Customs territory are loaded on board a vessel at a place in the Customs territory and are transported to another place in the same Customs territory where they are then unloaded and cleared. The term can also be used for the same purposes for air transportation (domestic flights).

Looking to the complaint technically, one of the SADC Secretariat key objectives is to reduce the costs of doing business in the region. However, some interventions of the Secretariat are bounded by its regional economic integration process. SADC is currently a FTA among its 11 Member States, enabling goods originating in Member States applying the FTA to enter duty free and quota free under certain conditions stated in the SADC Protocol on Trade. For this economic activity, economic operators are not obliged to be registered as economic operators in the countries were goods are delivered. A deeper regional economic integration would be needed in order to allow foreign economic operators to engage in business activities in Member States, benefiting from local business opportunities but also fiscal obligations. This is a level of economic integration closer to common market and which unfortunately, the SADC Protocol on Trade does not provide for.  

Progress update note

 

Policy or regulatory NTB

Yes 

Location

SADC  

Reporting Country or Region

Namibia  

Country specific trade issue

No  

Date of incident

2010-02-10  

Status

Resolved  

Date of resolution

2011-11-10  

Product Description

All products

Computer-assisted translation

• English
• Arabic
• French
• Portuguese

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Total value

0  

Date reported

2010-02-10 00:00  

Modified

2011-11-10 11:09