WT/REG368/M/1  
 
18 October 2018 
(18-6499) Page: 1/3 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements Session  
Ninetieth Session    
 
ACCESSION OF SEYCHEL LES TO THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEV ELOPMENT COMMUNITY 
TRADE PROTOCOL  
(GOODS)  
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 18 SEPTEMBER 2018  
Chairman: Ambassador Julian  BRAITHWAITE  (United Kingdom ) 
1.1.  The 90th Session of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (hereinafter 'CRTA' or the 
'Committee') was convened in Airgram WTO/AIR/RTA/ 15 dated 7  August 2018.  
1.2.  Under Agenda Item D.I of the Session, the CRTA considered the  Accession of the Seychelles to 
the Southern African Development Community (SADC)  Trade P rotoco l (goods) , (hereinafter  "the 
Agreement").  
1.3.  The Chairman  said that the Agreement  had entered into force on 25 May 2015. It had been 
notified to the WTO by the Parties on 8  January 2016 under Article  XXIV:7(a) of the GATT  1994 and 
the Understanding on the Interpretation of Article  XXIV of GATT 1994 as an Agreement establishing 
a free trade area (document  WT/REG368/N/1). The text of the Agreement was available, together 
with its Annexes, on the Parties' official websites.  The factual p resentation on the goods aspects 
(document  WT/REG368/1 dated 6 July 2018) ha d been distributed. No questions had been received 
from Members on the  Agreement .   
1.4.  The r epresentative of the Seychelles  express ed her  appreciation to the Secretariat for the 
preparation of the factual p resentation on the Seychelles'  accession to the SADC Trade Protocol. The 
Seychelles had been  reinstated into SADC in 2008 and had become a member of the Agreement  in 
May 2015. Whilst the Seychelles was  by far the smallest economy  in the region, for it the Agreement 
was of great importance in showing its  commitment to Africa's goal of pursu ing deeper regional 
integration. The Agreement w as also important in view of the opportunities  that existed  to trade 
with its Southern African neighbours and to contribute as a stepping stone towards the bigger 
objective of boosting intra -Africa trade . To an economy , which had historically been reliant on trade 
with Europe, the Agreement would  help to introdu ce more diversity in both of its import and export 
markets. The Agreement, which was  fully com patible with WTO rules, provided  legal security and  
predictability f or trade and was  therefore expected to create better trading conditions for Southe rn 
African States and the Seychelles . The negotiation of the Agreement had taken  into account some 
of the Seychelles ' vulnerabilities and sensitiv ities, hence the exclusion of 2.5% of tariff lines  from 
liberalization . Howeve r, the Seychelles  remain ed within the scope of liberalizing substantially all 
trade, with the liberalization of the remaining 97.5% of tariff lines expected by 2026. The current 
liberalization stood  at 92.5 %. The Seychelles  was currently  engaged in  the implementation of the 
Agreement  and several issues were  being addressed to assist the country with its  institutional 
capacity an d improve the c ompetitiveness of its  domestic industries th rough appropriate technical 
assistance  provided to the Parties  of the Agreement , through the SADC Trade Related Facility.  She 
looked forward to  a fruitful discussion with Members.  
1.5.  The representative of Namibia , on behalf of the SADC Member States , thank ed the Secretariat 
for the detailed factual presentation.  The Seychelles had become the 13th SADC Member State to 
the SADC Protocol on Trade in April 2015 when it completed its domestic procedures to affect its 
accession.  The Seychelles, though a smaller  economy than most of t he SADC m ember s in terms of 
GDP, was  a strategic trading partner for SADC  members . Some of them had been among the top 
export destinations and the largest source of imports for the Seychelles during the period surveyed WT/REG368/M/1  
 
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  in the factual presentation.  In 2015,  MFN duty -free tariff l ines were in the range of 85% for  the 
Seychelles. Approxima tely 91.09% of tariff lines had been  fully liberalized upon en try into force; the 
percentage would  increase to 97.5% by the end of the implementation period.  
1.6.  The Agreement  required  that other SADC Member States  extend  their Trade Protocol tariff 
offers to the Seychelles.  They had  anticipate d that the accession of the Seychelles to SADC would  
enhance trade between the Seychelles and SADC Member States and lead to improved ec onomic 
growth and regional integration. The SADC Member States  congratulate d the Seychelles and wish ed 
it the best of luck.  
1.7.  The representative of the European Union (EU)  thanked the P arties for the comprehensive 
presentation on  the accession of the Seychel les to the Agreement , and the Secretariat for preparing 
the factual presentation. The EU had read the document with great interest as it also had trade 
relation s with the Seychelles and other countries in the SADC region. The Seychelles was also party 
to the Economic Partnership  Agreement between the East ern and Southern Africa States and the 
EU, which had already reached a good level of implementation. The Seychelles had fully respected 
its commitments for liberalisation and tariff dismantling, which would  be fully achieved in 2022, 
while it had benefited  from duty -free quota -free market access to the European Union. The 
partnership between the EU and the Seychelles had established func tioning institutions and had 
created  opportunities for  both sides . She c ommended the Parties for the notification of this accession 
to an existing agreement and the review process in accordance with the Transparency Mechanism.  
1.8.  The representative of the United States  expressed his appreciation to the Seychelles for the 
hard work put in to the preparation of the review , and acknowledged the importance of reviewing an  
accession to an existing agreement. He saluted the Seychelles for coming forward with the 
notification and demonstrating that it was an obligation that Me mbers sho uld under take. He 
welcome d the opportunity  to review developments in  the SADC , itself, but also through the accession  
of the Seychelles . The United States had not provided any writ ten questions  in advance  but was 
pleased to read the factual presentation an d find information about the Seychelles ' performance 
relative  to its neighbours. He acknowledged the positive contribution that the Seychelles had made 
to the WTO since its acc ession and noted that the review of its  regional integration was extremely 
impor tant. He appreciated the opportunity  to review  the Agreement, and  noted that for  RTAs of this 
size the factual  presentation could be a little tricky  to read and admitted that it had been  a challenge  
but he had appreciated  the annex that was provided as it did a good job of explaining the s tate of 
play. For the United States, the take aways were a fascinating picture of regional integration in a 
part of Africa, somet hing Members had been hearing about for quite a bit  of time , and he believed 
it was encouraging to see some  trade patterns, including of some LDCs undertaking  some quite 
aggressive tariff liberalization commitments , either through accession  or as part of the Agreement. 
He comme nded that work .  
1.9.  He added that a lot of U.S. technical assistance programs in Africa were aim ed at regional 
integration and so was very interesting  to see how such RTAs were advancing national interests. He 
said that it would be interesting to take a thematic  approach , and look at African integration and at 
some of these RTAs. A number of SADC members were also parti es to COMESA, and based on one 
table of the factual presentation it was not clear what was the status of COMESA. S ome of its 
members hadn't notified their membership of the agreement  and o thers had withdrawn but hadn't 
notified  their withdrawal  either , so he encouraged the SADC members under review  that were also 
members of COMESA  to provide some information that could clarify the status of the membership 
of COMESA.  While the United  States did not have  specific qu estions regarding the  factual 
presentation , it had appreciated  the picture of regional integration and hoped  the discussions on the 
important work that was being undertaken regionally could continue in this or another committee.  
1.10.   The representative of the Seychelles  thanked the United States and the  EU for their comments  
and asked if the United States could provide its questions regarding the membership of COMESA in 
writing . The Seychelles w ould revert to the m with their answers.  
1.11.   The representative of the United States  said that he would provide  the questions in writing 
and clarified  that he was referring to T able 4.1 of the factual presentation on the relationship of the 
Agreement with other RTAs  concluded by  the parties . According to the table, only the accession of 
Egypt had been notified , while five  other accessions, including that of the Seychelles, and three 
withdrawals had not been notified . WT/REG368/M/1  
 
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  1.12.   The Chairman  thanked the Seychelles for its work during the  process. As mentioned earlier, 
it was a very detailed process that involved a lot of work by the delegations in Geneva and in capital. 
It was a very important part of the work  underpinning the multilateral trading system , which all 
Members supported . He also thanked  Namibia for its contribution .  
1.13.   The Chairman said  that consideration of the goods aspect of the a ccession of Seychelles to 
the SADC  Trade Protocol, had allowed the Committee to clarify a number of questions and it could 
now conclude oral discussion of the RTA in accordance with paragraph 11 of the Transparency 
Mechanism. If any delegations wished to ask follow -up questions they were invited to forward 
submissions in writing to the Secretariat by 25 September 2018 and Parties were asked to submit 
replies in writing by no later than 9 October 2018. In accordance with paragraph  13 of the 
Transparency Mechanism all written submissions, as well as minutes of the meeting would be 
circulated promptly, in all WTO  official languages, and would be made availabl e on the WTO website.  
1.14.   The Committee took note of the comments made.  
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