Mobilising Aid for Trade:

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Mobilising Aid for Trade A Global
Review Regional Approaches Eastern and Southern
Africa Mark Pearson (representing the COMESA
Secretariat) 19th November 2007 WTO Secretariat,
Geneva, Switzerland
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• Administrative and Financing Issues

COMESA Aid for Trade (COMAid) Unit An Aid for
Trade Unit is being established to prepare the
regional AfT strategy implementation plan
bankable project proposals and provide
demand-driven assistance on AfT to COMESA Member
States. COMESA Fund Resources will be made
available to countries in need of AfT to allow
them to take advantage of more liberal trade
regimes after they have presented bankable
programmes and main-streamed trade into the
development agenda. The COMESA Fund is a
mechanism to channel resources down to the
projects. It can accept grants or loans, and
can disburse by buying equity or lending or
providing a grant.
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• Trade Policy and Regulation Issues

Policy Instruments to Strengthen FTAs Additional
AfT can be used by COMESA to assist with the
further simplification of Rules of Origin,
improve the dispute settlement process at both
the formal and informal stages and increase the
amount of regional trade by providing information
and creating awareness. Implement the Customs
Union COMESA has in place a Common Tariff
Nomenclature and a Common External Tariff has
been agreed and common customs procedures are in
place. Further AfT can be used to ensure the
design is optimal and will result in free
movement of goods.
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• Trade Development

• COMESA, together with other RECs in Eastern and
  Southern Africa, is strengthening and improving
  Trade Facilitation Instruments, including
• Creation of more one-stop border posts
• Improving customs procedures and IT
  harmonisation
• Single Customs Document
• Harmonised axle loading and vehicle dimensions
• Harmonised road transit charges
• Regional carriers license
• Regional Third Party Vehicle Insurance (Yellow
  Card)
• Regional Customs Bond Guarantee System
• Mechanism to remove and monitor NTBs
• Common regional standards based on international
  standards.

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Building Productive Capacity If trade is to be a
major component of economic development countries
have to have something to trade with and to be
able to produce at competitive prices. COMESA is
assisting in this process by creating an
appropriate regional environment with the
regional investment area, regional competition
policy and regulations and regional public
procurement regulations. Trade-Related
Adjustment The COMESA Fund has two components
Infrastructure Fund and Adjustment Facility. The
European Commission, under EDF9, has recently
agreed to place 78 million into the COMESA Fund
Adjustment Facility which will be allocated to
COMESA Member States as budget support to help
meet costs of adjustment.
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• Trade-Related Infrastructure

The COMESA-SADC-EAC Task Force has approved the
implementation of a Pilot Transport Corridor
approach to addressing the problem of reducing
the costs of getting goods to the international
market, which is one of the main constraints to
improving competitiveness of the regions
productive sector. The pilot is the North-South
Corridor from South Africa to the Copperbelt (in
Zambia and DR Congo) and to Dar-es-Salaam in
Tanzania. Many individual initiatives are already
taking place along this corridor, in terms of
improved infrastructure and trade facilitation
instruments, but the pilot aims to bring these
initiatives together under one umbrella and to
ensure appropriate sequencing of trade
facilitation instruments and required
infrastructure upgrades.
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• North South Corridor