Members of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) in Africa have completed more than half the work needed to finalise the rules to govern how products imported from nonmember countries are treated within the area. Called the rules of origin, these arrangements will be critical to prevent nonmember nations from flooding the free trade area via the member with the most liberal trade regime. Rules of origin are necessary as the TFTA will not have a common external tariff to regulate the treatment of goods from outside countries. Department of trade & industry chief director Wamkele Mene told the National Council of Provinces select committee on trade and international relations on Wednesday that negotiations over the rules were 60% complete and were expected to be finalised in mid-2019.
Parliament is in the process of ratifying the agreement for the TFTA, which will bring together 26 African countries into a single market governed by preferential free-trade arrangements. The agree...
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