Africa
SADC trade integration: the paperwork is the barrier, not the tariffs
Tariff schedules have largely been agreed. Rules of origin, standards recognition and border processing are where regional trade still stalls.
Ask an exporter what stops regional trade and you will not hear about tariffs.
You will hear about certificates of origin, standards that are not mutually recognised, and border posts that keep different hours on each side.
The non-tariff reality
- Rules of origin are documentation-heavy and interpreted inconsistently
- Standards and testing often require duplicate certification per market
- Border hours and systems are unsynchronised, adding dwell time
- Payments across currencies add cost and settlement delay
What this costs
Every one of those items is a fixed cost, which means it falls hardest on small consignments and small exporters. A large miner absorbs it; a food processor shipping pallets cannot.
We can compete on price into the region. We cannot compete on paperwork.
Where progress is real
Digital certificate exchange and mutual recognition of testing have moved faster than headline negotiations, and exporters report genuine improvement on specific corridors. The gains are unglamorous and compound quietly.
