Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa - The total volume of trade between the 19 member states of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has grown by a total of $4.7b by the end of 2010. "Intra-COMESA trade had increased to US$17.4 billion by the end of 2010, signifying a recovery from 2009 when intra-COMESA trade was US $12.7 billion due to the financial crisis and economic recession, according to a communiqué issued at the end of the summit of the COMESA Authority of Heads of State and Government recently in Lilongwe, Malawi. It said the Authority noted that there has been almost a six-fold increase in intra-COMESA trade since the launch of the Free Trade Area (FTA) in, 2000 when the value stood at US $3.1 billion. The summit held on the theme, "Harnessing Science and Technology for Development" welcomed Egypt's adoption of the 35% value addition threshold under the COMESA Rules of Origin to be in line with all the rest of the member states. The leaders noted that the mid-term review of the implementation of the three-year transition period for the Customs Union has been undertaken, and the good progress that established a ministerial task force to work with member states to address any outstanding issues in order to ensure that a functional customs union is implemented.

"They said that following the launch of the negotiations for the Tripartite Free Trade Area which comprises of the EAC, COMESA and SADC on June 12 2011 in Johannesburg, South Africa, preparations are progressing well towards the commencement of the negotiations," said the statement.

They urged the member states to prepare to effectively participate in the negotiations, and called for due compliance with the roadmap for the negotiations.

The statement said that the leaders urged member states to promote fiscal convergence by implementing the COMESA Multilateral Fiscal Surveillance Framework in order to make the region a zone of macroeconomic stability.

"All central banks and stakeholders in the COMESA region are urged to aggressively market and use the regional payment and settlement system (REPSS) in order to enhance intra regional trade," added the statement.

The leaders welcomed the offer by Uganda to host the COMESA Regional e-Governance Academy

The leaders called for the strengthening of relations between the COMESA and the other regional organizations in Africa, particularly, within the frameworks of COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite arrangement and the COMESA, EAC, IGAD and IOC under the Inter-Regional Coordination Committee (IRCC).

Leaders noted that that infrastructure development and transport facilitation is being implemented under the aegis of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite arrangement and hailed the successful outcome of the recent COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite and IGAD Infrastructure Investment Conference that was held on September 28 and 29 2011 in Kenya which initiated the process for mobilisation of funding for projects on the Central, Northern, Lamu and Djibouti Corridors including energy projects

They urged the member states under the Tripartite framework to expedite the harmonisation of trade facilitation instruments and policies so as to reduce the cost of doing business and enhance competitiveness and commended the strong support by the cooperating and development partners including the private sector for the COMESA-EAC-SADC and IGAD Corridor Programme.

David Muwanga

East African Business Week/24/10/2011