Business Daily (Nairobi)
Allan Odhiambo
10 June 2008
Prospects of attaining Africa's largest common market look brighter as technocrats from three regional blocs seek to hold joint talks on the matter.
Trade officials from the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are proposing a joint summit in September and October to start negotiations on plans for a grand Free Trade Area (FTA).
Sources told Business Daily that the summit talks would mainly involve the council of ministers from the respective regional economic communities (RECs) as member countries set their eyes on what would be the continent's largest common market.
"The proposals on the dates for the planned summits have already been made and it is envisaged that two meetings would help roll out the process," the source said.
Last month, outgoing Comesa secretary-general Erastus Mwencha, while addressing an extra ordinary council of ministers' meeting in Nairobi, said plans for the summit were under way, but fell short of giving a date on when it would take place.
"Cooperation with these RECs to harmonise overlapping trade commitments and the creation of harmonised African FTA will broaden markets, reduce costs, and improve export competitiveness, the official said. "The tripartite Comesa, SADC and EAC summit will go a long way in this regard."
But with the summit dates now on the table, analysts said the dreams of realising the larger common market could soon be a reality especially because the plans had already won the nod from officials of the EAC and Comesa who want the three economic communities merged into one unit.
"Specifically the harmonisation will be with respect to the Common External Tariff (CET) and related trade policy areas as well as overlapping membership," a joint communique issued by the Comesa council of ministers at the end of the third special task force meeting on the Customs Union in Lusaka, Zambia, recently read in part.
The nod by the Comesa ministers came back-to-back with a similar proposal by trade technocrats from the EAC who at a meeting in Arusha, called for the formation of a grand Free Trade Area (FTA) comprising of the Comesa, SADC and EAC, as the best solution to the differences that have arisen among their member states in the recent past.
A free trade area refers to a group of countries that have agreed to eliminate tariffs, quotas and preferences on most (if not all) goods trading among them.
It a form of economic integration that comes out of countries whose economical structures are complementary but if they are competitive, they would prefer a Customs Union.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Business Daily. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
