The Monitor (Kampala)
Dorothy Nakaweesi
8 July 2009
Kampala — The signing of the long-awaited Common Market for East and Central African Customs Union has been considered a ray of hope for the regions' market.
This comes at a time when the world is experiencing an economic slowdown, which has seen the US and European Union - the region's major markets - almost grind to a halt.
Due to the recession, consumers' reduced spending has negatively impacted upon Comesa's exports to the developed world and those countries, which are still trading are cutting back.
At the 12th Summit of the Comesa Authority of Heads of States, which witnessed the approval of the Customs Union, in Harare-Zimbabwe recently, the outgoing Chairman, President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya called upon Comesa, "to find homegrown solutions for the region and have courage in addressing all global challenges that face the region".
The Customs Union will enable Comesa to grow beyond the free movement of goods and establish the foundations of an effective single market, which is currently over 400 million people.
The Comesa has an annual import bill of about $32 billion (Shs68, 800 trillion) with an export bill of $82 billion (Shs176 trillion), the region forms a major market place for both internal and external trading.
President Robert Mugabe, who recently assumed the Comesa chairmanship, called for the speedy implementation of the regional integration agenda and free movement of factors of production, establishment of the single currency, as well as the single investment area.
He urged the Secretariat to assist all the remaining member states to join the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the Comesa Fund.
Comesa is made up of 19 member states and has been working on having a Customs Union to follow the successful Free Trade Area (FTA) launched in 2000.
However, only 14 countries have been participating in the FTA, which has seen intra-regional trade levels grow from $3 billion (Shs13,867 trillion) at the time of the launch to over $9 billion (Shs19,350 trillion) as at December 2008.
This trade is mainly concentrated in goods produced in the FTA participating countries, which is done free of duty among the member States who have signed up for the FTA.
Despite the benefits of Comesa FTA, Uganda has for sometime shied away from signing, mainly because of its involvement in the East African Community integration. EAC is currently in the final stages of implementing a Customs Union by end of this year, which also has unfinished business before it enters into the Common Market in 2010.
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