The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Damas Kanyabwoya
8 July 2008
Tanzania has no intention of rejoining the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).
The stance contradicts a World Trade Index 2008 report prepared by the World Bank which indicates that Tanzania is planning to reapplying for a membership from the economic bloc in which it withdrew in 2000.
"It is totally untrue," Mr Edward Sungula of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Marketing told a seminar in Dar es Salaam.
"Tanzania does not think of going back to Comesa after withdrawing in 2000 due to lack of economic gains in that bloc."
The report notes that "regionally, Tanzania is a member of the Southern Africa Development Community [SADC], the East African Community [EAC], the Cross-Border Initiative, and is considering re-entering the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa from which it withdrew in 2000."
Mr Sungula said: "Tanzania is not going back to Comesa and we have made our stance very clear to the United Nations Organisations headquarters but unfortunately we see these mistakes appear in reports like this."
Tanzania's international trade director John Mhina told The Citizen at the seminar that the country's lost opportunities after withdrawing from Comesa had been offset by the start of the SADC free-trade area January this year.
In the SADC-FTA, 85 per cent of the tariff lines are already zero-rated, giving Tanzanian traders almost the same leverage as their Comesa counterparts.
The process is continuing to have the rest of the tariff lines zero-rated by in phases to ensure that agricultural commodities in the country are not highly affected.
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