(DTIS) Update, Volume 1 – Main report - Enhanced Integrated ...

Dealing with both recurrent and emerging challenges requires effort along three axes. First,national authorities should work to build a climate of trust and mutual respect between publicadministrations and the private sector, by clarifying rules, training administrative personnel, and possiblyalso by dropping procedures launched on the basis of offenses allegedly committed years before theOBR’s creation. Second, they should contain regulatory proliferation, by adopting WTO “goodgovernance”rules for new regulations and limiting those to cases where they address clearly-identifiedsocietal demands. Third, they should provide political support to domestic exporters, by collectingreliable information on NTBs encountered by Burundi’s operators on other EAC markets, raising theissues in EAC forums and asking for explanations and changes, and ultimately pushing for the adoptionof a binding dispute-resolution mechanism on NTBs in the EAC, possibly open to private-sectorcomplainants. In all three areas, donors can help through financial and technical assistance.This chapter is organized as follows. Section 2 provides a statistical overview of data on Burundi’sNTMs based on newly-collected data and a detailed factual overview based on a mission on the ground;Section 3, a set of recommendations for national authorities and donor support to go forward in thecurrent reform agenda based on the diagnostic of Section 2 84 .2. Non-tariff measures in Burundi: What do we know?Information on NTMs in Burundi is available from an inventory drawn up at the World Bank’s initiativein 2011. The inventory, based on interviews with all government agencies involved in trade-relevantregulatory activity, was presented to and approved by national authorities at a validation workshop heldin April 2011.2.1 IncidenceTogether with Uganda and, to a slightly lesser extent, Kenya, Burundi stands out as a countrywhere most imports are covered by one measure or another (Figure 4.1). These three countries, allmembers of the EAC, are together with the E.U. the heaviest users of NTMs. As discussed previously,NTMs can be justified by consumer concerns for traceability and protection against health and otherhazards; however, it is not clear that these concerns are as acute in the three EAC countries as they are inthe E.U., raising the question of whether there is “overkill” in terms of NTMs, in particular in view oflocal regulatory capabilities.84 Annex 4 in Volume 2 of the DTIS update provides more conceptual and measurement background on NTMs andNTBs. In particular, it discusses the potential justification of NTMs and the WTO rules that discipline their use. Italso explains why NTBs are more detrimental and counter-productive in small countries such as Burundi, wheredomestic production is less likely to take place under competitive conditions. Finally, it presents the variousexisting initiatives to measure and collect information on NTBs, at the global level and in East Africa.74 / 153