KABANDA CHULU, Lusaka PLANS to launch the grand free trade area (FTA) that will bring 26 countries in the tripartite regional economic blocs into one common market have advanced.

Heads of states and governments are expected to append their signatures on the FTA on June 10, 2015, in Egypt, according to the COMESA website.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Southern African Development Community (SADC), and East African Community (EAC), Tripartite FTA (TFTA), comprising 26 countries or 48 percent of the membership of the African Union holds 51 percent of its gross domestic product and 56 percent of its population will be the largest economic bloc in Africa.

This will also be the launching pad for the establishment of the continental free trade (CFTA) in 2017.
“The advance teams will start arriving at the venue from June 5 for the technical meetings that will prepare the ground for the launch. The tripartite committee of senior officials and the council of ministers will be part of the advance team and their pre-launch meetings will take place on June 7and 8.”

“They will prepare the launch documents including the TFTA agreement, the declaration launching Phase II of the negotiations for the TFTA and the roadmap,” it stated.

The decision to establish the COMESA-EAC-SADC TFTA was mooted in 2008 to overcome the challenges posed by the overlapping membership of the three regional economic blocs, especially in the regional trade.

Zambia has dual membership in COMESA and SADC.

Source: Zambia Daily Mail

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