Published by the government of Zimbabwe
13 November 2008
Harare — The 13th Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa scheduled to be held this month in Victoria Falls, has been postponed to early next year to allow to allow the harmonisation of the Free Trade Areas and Common External Tariffs among the three regional communities, Government said yesterday.
In a statement yesterday the Minister of Industry and International Trade Cde Obert Mpofu said the summit was postponed following consultations between the Comesa Secretariat and the Bureau of the Council of Ministers.
"Following consultations between the Comesa Secretariat and the Bureau of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Industry and International Trade wishes to announce the postponement of the 13th Comesa Summit of Heads of State and Government which was scheduled to be held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe from 7th to 8th December 2008," Cde Mpofu said.
He said the postponement of the summit took into account the need to begging the process of implementing the task force decision of the Comesa-EAC-Sadc Tripartite Summit held in Kampala, Uganda last month.
"Of immediate priority is the harmonisation of the Common External Tariffs of Comesa and the EAC. The consultations between the two regional economic communities will go beyond December 6, 2008, which is when the Comesa Customs Union was scheduled to be launched," he said.
Cde Mpofu said it was against this background that the summit has been set to be held in the first six months of next year to allow the harmonisation process and consultations to be completed.
Preparation for the summit were already at an advanced stage. The summit was going to be held under the theme "Consolidating Regional Economic Integration through Value Addition, Trade and Food Security".
It was expected to come up with strategies that promote value addition of primary and semi processed good for domestic and international trade as well as enhancing agricultural production and food security in the region.
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Comesa would never materialisedwith destitutes. Guess who are destitutes? Hapana chinobuda maigona kuzotaura diesel reChinhoyi or kuchema nemasanctions.