The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tripartite is holding a regional meeting from 24-27 March 2026 in Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania, to advance the pilot implementation of Tripartite Simplified Trade Regime (TSTR). The TSTR is designed to make trade easier, faster and cheaper for people to trade goods across borders, especially for small-scale and informal traders, including women and youth.
The TSTR is supported by Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which helps improve agricultural markets, supports small farmers and promotes policies that make trade easier within the region.
The meeting brings together trade and customs officials, Trade Information Desk Officers (TIDOs), Cross Border Traders Associations (CBTAs), Joint Border Committees (JBCs), as well as youth and women trader groups. Government representatives from Malawi, Mozambique, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia are also taking part. They are discussing strategies to enhance implementation of the TSTR building upon existing STRs as key element for facilitating trade between and amongst the countries. Some of the issues being discussed also include common problems traders face, such as complicated procedures, long waiting times, too much paperwork and different rules at different borders.
The Tripartite initiative shows a strong commitment to working together as a region. By combining and simplifying existing trade systems, COMESA, EAC and SADC aim to create one clear and consistent system that is easier for small-scale and informal traders to understand and use.
The four participating countries were chosen because of specific border posts where the system will first be tested. These include Mwami-Mchinji (Zambia-Malawi), Mandimba-Chiponde (Mozambique-Malawi) and Kasumulu-Songwe (United Republic of Tanzania-Malawi). These border locations will help pilot how the proposed TSTR framework operates in practice.
SADC will work with Member States to implement, test and pilot the system at these borders. Malawi, Mozambique, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia have already made progress in working together under existing trade agreements.
To create one unified system, Member States will work together to agree on product lists, required documents, procedures and how institutions should work together. This will help remove differences between current systems and make trade more predictable and easier.
Overall, the meeting is an important step in solving trade challenges faced by small traders. It will also help Member States adopt clear plan for putting the system into action, taking into account their different needs and capacities.
Once fully implemented, the TSTR is expected to make cross-border trade simpler, reduce clearance costs and time, create more business opportunities, strengthen cooperation between Member States and ensure that more people, especially small traders can benefit from regional trade.
