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An analysis of how the online non-tariff barriers mechanism facilitates reporting, monitoring and elimination of NTBs in the COMESA, EAC and SADC Region

Includes bibliographical references / Member countries of multilateral and regional organisations have progressively negotiated tariff preferences and achieved tariff reductions on substantial trade. However, a tendency of policy reversal has been witnessed due to non-tariff barriers (NTBs) being imposed to control trade and recoup losses arising from reduced duties. To address the proliferation of NTBs, multilateral and regional organisations are implementing various forms of NTB notification, reporting, monitoring and eliminating mechanisms. The broad objectives of this study is to evaluate the performance of the tripartite NTBs reporting, monitoring and eliminating mechanism against best practice and establish its effectiveness to remove NTBs in the tripartite region. The main aim is to identify challenges and gaps in the design of the mechanism that are critical to the effective management of NTBs. Existing literature on mechanisms to address NTBs was reviewed. The focus of which was the main elements of reporting, monitoring and resolution of NTBs through the online mechanism. Policies dealing with NTBs were identified. The short comings of the tripartite online NTB mechanism (NTB-RMM) particularly with regards to data inadequacies, poor categorisation which impact negatively on NTB monitoring and policy improvements in the tripartite countries were also identified from literature. The online mechanism, hosted on the website www.tradebarriers.org was the primary source of the information and data utilised for analysis in this study. Supplementary information was obtained from the actual responses from a target group using questionnaires and interviews. Data analysis was done by aggregating and assessing results from the data extracted from the mechanism, responses from questionnaire, available literature, findings from the desk research and oral and telephonic interviews. Evidence from literature indicated that there are basically two types of NTB mechanisms implemented at multilateral, regional and national levels. These are web and non-web based notification and reporting mechanisms. The mechanisms designed by the WTO, EU and OECD are notification mechanisms whereas the mechanisms implemented by other organisations like ECOWAS, COMESA, EAC and SADC are reporting mechanisms.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/20077
Date January 2015
CreatorsHove, Vonesai Shuvirai
ContributorsViljoen, Willemien
PublisherUniversity of Cape Town, Faculty of Commerce, GSB: Faculty
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeMaster Thesis, Masters, MCom
Formatapplication/pdf

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