Dodoma — EXISTING trade barriers between Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have no relations with the country's withdrawal of its membership from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Ambassador Mbarouk Nassor Mbarouk informed the National Assembly on Tuesday that various customs challenges between Tanzania and other countries have continued to acquire solutions day after day.
He was responding to a question posed by Momba Legislator, Ms Condester Sichwale (CCM), who wanted to know the country's plan of reinstating its membership in COMESA, taking into account the challenges facing Tanzanian traders who want to grasp market opportunities in other countries, citing an example of the Congolese one.
"The government has taken concrete measures to ensure traders from Tanzania do not incur any challenges while trading with neighbouring DR Congo," said Ambassador Mbarouk.
According to him, the initiatives includes establishment of Tanzania-DR-Congo Joint Permanent Commission (JPC), indicating that the commission met in September last year to deliberate on the various trade matters.
In her supplementary question, Ms Sichwale wanted to know whether the government has conducted any research to determine if the country has been affected positively or negatively from its COMESA withdrawal.
The deputy minister indicated that before withdrawing from its membership, the country was certified there would not be any adverse effects from its decision.
In his response to the main question, Ambassador Mbarouk said Tanzania was among countries which established COMESA in 1994 and withdrew its membership in 2000 because of being a member in both the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC).
He stressed that the government's decision was reached after making sure that the country was not going to face any negative economic effects.
Elaborating further, the Ambassador said that in the 2018 COMESA, EAC and SADC countries had agreed to form a tripartite arrangement; therefore Tanzania has continued to collaborate with countries under COMESA through the arrangement.
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He, however, said that in 2021, Tanzania ratified the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) that also allows the country to continue cooperating with COMESA countries.
"The objective of establishing the COMESA was to promote a common market... this means that the existence of the tripartite arrangement contributes to eradicating the challenges," he said.
