DAVID MAGERIA, Nairobi | Saturday
NINE out of the 20 members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa(COMESA) have promised to join a regional free trade area when it is launched at the end of next month, say officials.
COMESA’s Secretary General Erastus Mwencha said the FTA programme was ”firmly on course” and that Seychelles would join in June 2001.
The nine countries which have committed themselves to eliminating all internal tariffs by October 31 are Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Madagascar, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The zero internal tariff will apply only to goods originating in the countries concerned.
Heads of state are expected to meet on October 31 in Lusaka to launch the free trade zone.
COMESA has been working to gradually eliminate all internal tariffs for years but frequent political conflicts, concerns about government revenue losses and threats to the survival of domestic industries have slowed the process.
But Mwencha said there was a provision for budgetary support to countries affected by a revenue loss problem from the elimination of tariffs.
COMESA was established in 1994 to promote trade and investment in the region. It represents a market of 380 million people and a combined gross national product of $170bn.
Mwencha said the next step would be the implementation of a common external tariff by 2004 and said COMESA was also working to set up a common investment agency by next year.
”We will shift our gear to investment promotion,” Mwencha said. ”We have to work on the image of the continent.”
The COMESA chief said the benefits likely to accrue from the measures taken by COMESA could be tempered by recent soaring oil prices, volatility in commodity prices and a large combined external debt estimated at $130bn in 1998.
Most economies in the region depend on agriculture but many soft commodity prices have been falling this year at the same time as oil prices have risen sharply.
Other COMESA members are Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Namibia, Rwanda, Swaziland. – Reuters