Mauritius
Answer ... Mauritius is a member of a range of multilateral, regional and bilateral agreements. At the multilateral level, Mauritius is an original member of the World Trade Organization, having joined upon the establishment of the institution in 1995. Prior to this, Mauritius became a contracting party to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in September 1970.
At the regional and bilateral level, Mauritius is a signatory to a series of trade agreements, as follows.
Bilateral trade agreements
|
Regional Trade Agreements
|
- Mauritius-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
- Turkey-Mauritius FTA
- China Mauritius FTA
- Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) between Mauritius and India
|
- African Continental Free Trade Area
- Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Free Trade Area
- COMESA, East African Community and Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tripartite Free Trade Area
- SADC Free Trade Area
- Interim Economic Partnership Agreement (iEPA) with the European Union
- United Kingdom (UK)-Eastern Southern Africa Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)
|
Furthermore, due to its categorisation as a developing country, Mauritius benefits from a number of unilateral trade preferences granted by developed countries through the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme. GSP-granting jurisdictions include Australia, Belarus, the European Union, Japan, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Russia, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States. Mauritius also benefits from the United States’ African Growth and Opportunity Act, an African-specific set of unilateral trade preferences.
Finally, Mauritius is also engaged in several forums destined to improve bilateral and regional trading environment, including:
- the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement between Mauritius and the United States;
- the Indian Ocean Commission; and
- the Indian Ocean Rim Association.
However, these forums do not grant tariff preferences to member countries.
Mauritius
Answer ... The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade (MoFARIT) is the main institution responsible for negotiating trade agreements in Mauritius. The International Trade Division (ITD), under the aegis of MoFARIT, is responsible for overseeing all matters relating to the facilitation of bilateral, regional and multilateral trade agreements in Mauritius. The ITD also coordinates trade policies in conjunction with relevant ministries and the private sector in Mauritius to determine the negotiating positions of the country with regard to different aspects of trade.
Negotiations with the Mauritian government on trade agreements normally take several years, although this is still considered fast in comparison to international practices. Negotiations on the China-Mauritius FTA, for instance, began in December 2017 and concluded in October 2019. The process involved four rounds of negotiations. Likewise, for the CECPA between Mauritius and India, negotiations began in 2017 and were conducted through seven rounds of negotiations and 13 digital video conferences. The CECPA was signed in February 2021.
Mauritius
negAnswer ... otiation?
In some cases, yes. The Mauritian government has an iEPA with the European Union which was signed in August 2009. The iEPA has been provisionally applied since May 2012. The signatory states to the iEPA include Comoros, Madagascar, Seychelles and Zimbabwe, which all derive benefits from the agreement in the interim, such as duty-free market access to the European Union. The iEPA also includes a rendezvous clause, which foresees the expansion of the iEPA’s coverage towards other trade-related issues, such as trade in services, investment, sustainable development and competition. Negotiations to expand the scope of coverage of the iEPA began in October 2019 and are currently underway.