Africa, Development & Aid, Economy & Trade, Headlines, Poverty & SDGs, Trade & Investment, Trade and poverty: Facts beyond theory

TRADE-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Non-Tariff Barriers Blocking Flow of Goods

Stephanie Nieuwoudt

CAPE TOWN, Sep 30 2007 (IPS) - While the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has moved towards liberalising trade to make the flow of goods between countries easier and economically more rewarding, non-tariff barriers continue to be a concern, a recent study found.

Gregory Mthembu-Slater, an independent economist and political analyst based in the coastal city of Cape Town in South Africa, was recently commissioned by the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA) to look at how non-tariff trade barriers affect South Africa and Zimbabwe.

SAIIA is a research organisation attached to the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Between a quarter and a third of total domestic revenue in sub-Saharan Africa has come from trade tariffs, Mthembu-Slater told IPS. In richer countries, governments get less than two percent of their revenue from such tariffs.

With liberalisation has come the scrapping of these taxes, resulting in revenue being lost. Governments in the region try to recoup these losses by imposing other, non-tariff barriers.

In his paper Mthembu-Slater writes that ‘‘although specific sectors of national economies can, and do, benefit from non-tariff barriers, economies as a whole end up suffering as other countries also impose non-tariff barriers, which pushes up the costs for everyone’’.


Mthembu-Slater focused on the impact of non-tariff barriers on goods passing through the South African port city of Durban from Zimbabwe via the Beit Bridge border post. This crossing is one of the busiest in Africa and certainly the busiest in the SADC region.

In his research he identified a number of non-tariff barriers which cause huge losses and major delays.

According to data gathered between September 2005 and June 2006 by the Federation for East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (FESARTA), it took between 63 and 83 hours for heavy commercial vehicles seeking multiple entry permission to cross Beit Bridge on the northbound route from South Africa to Zimbabwe.

In December 2005 a ‘‘record’’ high 125 hours were recorded. Application for single entry permission can take between 48 and 53 hours on the northbound route. On the southbound route, single entry permission can take between 23 and 44 hours.

It took 26,2 hours for a truck seeking multiple entry permission on the southbound route to be processed by the SARS. Add another 28,5 hours for permission from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) and another 6,4 hours for clearing agents to do their job.

Mthembu-Slater commends the initiative by FESARTA to keep the border open around the clock, seven days a week. Figures indicate that around 6,8 percent of northbound and 24,2 percent of southbound trucks cross between 10 o’clock at night and 7 o’clock in the morning.

Many countries in the SADC region are looking at ways to install pre-clearance facilities, which would lead to a decrease in congestion at the borders. They also want to simplify customs documentation.

‘‘For this to work well, the different countries in the region need computer software that can talk to each other. But unfortunately the countries have incompatible excise and customs software,’’ Mthembu-Slater points out.

The many problems encountered at Beit Bridge have led truck drivers on the routes between South Africa, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to prefer the Botswana route.

While the Grobler’s Bridge option on the border between South Africa and Botswana is less direct than the Beit Bridge crossing, the costs are lower. The route via Zimbabwe involves a chronic diesel shortage and a range of administrative non-tariff barriers, including prohibitive taxes and other penalty charges.

Vehicles on the southbound route have no choice but to use Beit Bridge.

Another non-tariff barrier identified by Mthembu-Slater is serious ship and truck congestion at the Durban port in South Africa, which finds it difficult to deal with an increase in import and export activities.

Ship queues waiting to enter the terminal are between 10 and 15 kilometres long. This means delays of several hours.

There is insufficient space for trucks in the port and a shortage of equipment to load trucks. Truck queues can cause delays of between three and six hours, translating into a cost of 46 dollars per hour per truck. Trucks often wait in queues of up to 5 km long.

Another debilitating problem is the lack of an efficient regional transport network, says Mthembu-Slater.

‘‘Huge amounts of goods that should be transported by rail are now going by road. This is expensive and is bad for the roads, the environment and the economy. Minerals, which are high bulk items, are an example of goods that should be transported by rail.

‘‘But because of many different factors, minerals are transported by road. This is slow and expensive and does damage to the roads.’’

Mthembu-Slater emphasises in his study that while his focus is on Beit Bridge, the problems experienced are not unique to the Zimbabwe-South Africa transport links. These challenges affect the whole region. It is clear that SADC faces an uphill battle to solve these problems.

 
Republish | | Print |


z lib alternative