{"id":2304,"date":"2026-04-20T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/?p=2304"},"modified":"2026-04-20T12:00:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:00:39","slug":"sadc-targets-non-tariff-barriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/?p=2304","title":{"rendered":"SADC targets non-tariff barriers"},"content":{"rendered":"

JOHANNESBURG<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 THE Southern African Development Community (SADC) has successfully concluded a two-day meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, where representatives from government ministries and the private sector across member states identified concrete measures to eliminate non-tariff barriers (NTBs) affecting intra-regional trade.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The meeting, held from 14\u201315 April 2026, was supported by the Government of Germany through the Cooperation for the Enhancement of SADC Regional Economic Integration (CESARE) programme, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft f\u00fcr Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).<\/p>\n

Speaking on behalf of the SADC Secretariat, Cesarino Benjamim, Senior Programme Officer for Standards, Quality Assurance and Metrology (SQAM), reminded participants and national focal points of Article 3 of the SADC Protocol on Trade, which calls for the elimination of barriers to intra-SADC trade.<\/p>\n

He noted that several SADC structures, including the Committee of Ministers of Trade (CMT), have expressed concern over the low levels of intra-regional trade, largely attributed to the persistence of NTBs across the region.<\/p>\n

At its 34th meeting held on 5 June 2025 in Harare, Zimbabwe, the CMT approved the draft NTB Annex XII to the Protocol on Trade.<\/p>\n

The annex, which addresses non-tariff barriers, has since been submitted to the Committee of Ministers of Justice\/Attorneys General for legal review ahead of its final adoption.<\/p>\n

The CMT also endorsed the establishment of a dedicated Technical Working Group on NTBs, which will report to the SADC Subcommittee on Trade Facilitation, and directed the Secretariat to mobilise resources to accelerate the resolution of NTBs.<\/p>\n

During the meeting, participants reviewed unresolved NTBs reported through the Tripartite NTB Reporting Mechanism.<\/p>\n

This platform was established to enable traders and focal points from the three regional economic communities\u2014Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC), and SADC\u2014to report, monitor, and expedite the resolution of trade barriers in line with regional trade agreements.<\/p>\n

The meeting identified practical mechanisms to resolve 52 percent of the reported NTBs.<\/p>\n

Member states further agreed to pursue bilateral engagements to address the remaining barriers, with the aim of enhancing trade facilitation and boosting intra-regional trade within SADC.<\/p>\n

– CAJ News<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOHANNESBURG\u00a0\u2013 THE Southern African Development Community (SADC) has successfully concluded a two-day meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, where representatives from government ministries and the private sector across member states identified concrete measures to eliminate non-tariff barriers (NTBs) affecting intra-regional trade. The meeting, held from 14\u201315 April 2026, was supported by the Government of Germany through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,448,5,53,55],"tags":[486,485],"class_list":["post-2304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-business-ethics","category-featured","category-finance","category-investing","tag-largely-attributed-to-the-persistence-of-ntbs-across-the-region","tag-southern-african-development-community-sadc-regionals-committee-of-ministers-of-trade-cmt-expressed-concern-over-the-low-levels-of-intra-regional-trade"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Southern-Africa-1-150x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Southern-Africa-1-300x212.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Southern-Africa-1-768x542.jpg","large":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Southern-Africa-1-1024x723.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Southern-Africa-1-1536x1085.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Southern-Africa-1.jpg","post-thumbnail":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Southern-Africa-1-300x300.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"administrator","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a3d5ebfe727f13fb325bd400aaaf5e789d3e2e20898883d9ae8e3d3d42d58cef?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"JOHANNESBURG\u00a0\u2013 THE Southern African Development Community (SADC) has successfully concluded a two-day meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, where representatives from government ministries and the private sector across member states identified concrete measures to eliminate non-tariff barriers (NTBs) affecting intra-regional trade. The meeting, held from 14\u201315 April 2026, was supported by the Government of Germany through […]","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["Business","Business Ethics","Featured","Finance","Investing"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":2,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":2,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Southern-Africa-1.jpg",1920,1356,false],"medium":["https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Southern-Africa-1-300x212.jpg",300,212,true],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Southern-Africa-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"administrator","author_link":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/?author=2"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a3d5ebfe727f13fb325bd400aaaf5e789d3e2e20898883d9ae8e3d3d42d58cef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"Business<\/a> Business Ethics<\/a> Featured<\/a> Finance<\/a> Investing<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2306,"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304\/revisions\/2306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}