Trade
Experts advise Malawi to domesticate policies on regional trade pacts
November 28, 2019 / Bester Kayaye
Experts have advised the Malawi Government to improve its domestication of its obligations under Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) to seal gaps between its domestic legislation and its obligations in terms of its RTA commitments.
International Trade Law Consultant George Naphambo said currently Malawi does not have necessary legislation in place required for the imposition of trade remedies such as Anti-dumping duties, Countervailing duties and Safeguard measures in terms of the relevant World Trade Organisation Agreements.
He was speaking during the closing session of validation workshops on studies conducted on Malawi’s Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements at Ryalls Hotel in Blantyre.
The studies were executed by Zimbabwean Firm Trade and Development Studies Centers, under the European Union (EU) Technical Assistance initiative aimed at supporting Malawi government in Bilateral, Regional and Multilateral Trade Agreements.
Naphambo said the trade pacts require important safety valves for dealing with unfair trade and increasing imports as a result of trade liberalisation which calls for the need for Malawi to draft the required laws and regulations to domesticate its World Trade Organisation (WTO) obligations and RTA commitments in line with trade remedies and establish a competent authority to initiate and investigate applications for the use of trade remedies.
“This will also entail the drafting of the necessary legislation and regulations to domesticate the WTO provisions on trade remedies. Malawi as a Least Developed Country (LDC) should also push for trade remedy provisions in RTAs that are less stringent than the requirements of the WTO trade remedy provisions,” he said
Naphambo also recommended that “Malawi needs to enter into mutual recognition agreements with regard to standards and technical regulations and domesticate such agreements in order to ensure that Malawi exporters have access to markets of other RTA Member States without having to also comply with the standards and technical regulations of other Member States.”
Meanwhile, Malawi is in violation of its obligations under the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Free Trade Area (FTA) due to its failure to liberalise its tariffs on South African imports of sensitive products in accordance with its schedules of commitment under the SADC Trade Protocol.
“As this failure to implement its obligations does not qualify for a derogation under the SADC Trade Protocol and is not covered by the available legal exceptions in the Trade Protocol, Malawi will have to address this issue through consultations with South Africa and other SADC Member States.”-He explained
Naphambo said “as part of such consultations Malawi should explore alternative funding mechanisms for its revenue shortfall from continued liberalisation under RTAs, which is the main reason behind its failure to timely implement its SADC tariff reduction obligations.”
Public Relations Officer for Paramount Holdings Limited Dick Juma recommended to the private players to be more proactive in their operations to position Malawi on positive side as regards to trade agreements at both bilateral, regional and multinational level.
Juma also urged the policy makers to address Non-Tariff Barriers (NTB) that exporters in Malawi are currently encountering which is in violation of the relevant RTAs’ legal provisions on NTBs.
He said “Malawi should focus on implementing and strengthening the mechanisms for reporting and resolving NTBs available under existing RTAs and the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) and Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreements.”
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The establishment of a stable and self-sustaining ecosystem, but not necessarily the one that existed before mining began. In many cases, complete restoration may be impossible, but successful remediation, reclamation, and rehabilitation can result in the timely establishment of a functional ecosystem.
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