Previous forum discussions - Africa Agricutlural Trade Policy Practitioners Network (ATPPN) Forum https://trapca.org/atppn/forum/main-forum/ Africa Agricutlural Trade Policy Practitioners Network (ATPPN) Discussion Board en-US Sun, 12 Apr 2026 19:33:17 +0000 wpForo 60 SPS and Intra-African Trade https://trapca.org/atppn/forum/main-forum/sps-and-intra-african-trade/ Mon, 02 Mar 2020 06:29:32 +0000 International regulatory cooperation (IRC) is an integral part of good regulatory practices in today’s globalized world. This is key given that regulatory heterogeneity and associated costs may be justified by domestic public policy priorities and reflect variations in domestic conditions and preferences.
This implies that there are legitimate reasons why countries adopt regulations that are different, one from another due to among others varying perceptions of risk, income levels, cultures, or political and legal systems, or practical differences in national situations (e.g. geographical, climatic, infrastructural, technological) and capacity.  The SPS Agreements at the multilateral and regional levels take this into account and provide flexibility for countries and customs territories to self determine their own legitimate objectives and appropriate levels of sanitary or phytosanitary protection. However, in some cases, the costs that arise from such self-determination may be the result of rule-making processes working in isolation without sufficient consideration for the regional or international environment. In this context,
 it is likely that some of the trade costs of regulatory heterogeneity are avoidable without compromising the quality of regulatory protection.  (See: OECD/WTO (2019) “Facilitating trade through regulatory cooperation: The case of the WTO’s TBT/SPS Agreements and Committees”, WTO, Geneva/OECD Publishing, Paris.)

Taking the above assertion into account, and the fact that despite increasing number of FTAs in Africa the intra-Africa trade in agricultural products remains extremely low discussions among policy makers, negotiators, enforcers of regulations and the private sector are necessary to establish how regulatory cooperation may be used to foster increased intra-Africa trade.

In this context, over the next five days from today, we are invited to discuss the following:

 

  1. What are challenges countries face in the area of SPS related regulatory cooperation in the context of African economic integration, particularly in areas where regulatory heterogeneity frustrate objectives of the African FTAs and customs unions?  

 

  1. What will it take for African countries to overcome regulatory barriers that necessitate regulatory cooperation?  

 

  1. Are the best practices that African countries may consider, both from regional and experiences from other parts of the world in the implementation of AfCFTA?
]]> Previous forum discussions Thokozanij https://trapca.org/atppn/forum/main-forum/sps-and-intra-african-trade/ How has agriculture trasformed Africa? https://trapca.org/atppn/forum/main-forum/how-has-agriculture-trasformed-africa/ Thu, 17 Oct 2019 10:02:45 +0000 How has agriculture transformed Africa?

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