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COMESA
Common Market for East and Southern Africa
The preparations for the negotiations of the Investment Protocol under the AfCFTA agreement (The Agreement) are already underway though still in the early stages.
Southern African countries have rattled the European Union by indicating they might reopen negotiations on a major new, long-range framework for relations between Europe and developing countries that has already been accepted by all sides.
Korean companies will archive market access through regional integration in Africa and East African region if Kenya is made base, according to Betty Maina, Kenya’s cabinet secretary for industrialization, trade and enterprise development.
Zimbabwe and Malawi are engaged in talks to revise their Bilateral Trade Agreement to ensure its provisions speak to a modern-day investor and assist in addressing pressing development needs of the two countries.
In a document that was made public this Tuesday, July 6, 2021, it was confirmed that Burundi officially ratified the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area on June 17, 2021.
Tunisia is ready to fully participate in the COMESA Free Trade Area regime (FTA) one year after giving notification of participation in the trade regime in March, 2020.
MPs drawn from the sugar belt region now want Parliament to summon Trade CS Betty Maina over what they term a ’secret’ sugar importation deal with Uganda. They said the importation will kill the local industry.
AfCFTA provides a platform for Mauritius to contribute significantly to the new African impetus by making available to investors and businessmen an ecosystem that not only makes it easier for them to do business with Africa, but also enhances and safeguards their investments.
The legal regimes of the eight Regional Economic Communities (RECs) recognised by the AfCFTA Agreement as building blocks of the African Continental Free Trade Area will not disappear when the AfCFTA is implemented.
The Council of Ministers of the Southern African Development Community has urged Member States that have not yet signed and ratified the AfCFTA and the TFTA to do so to allow for the implementation of the agreements.
Private sector lobbies in Africa’s six regional trading blocs have formed the African Business Council, a continental umbrella body to spearhead the business agenda for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Ministers from the tripartite group of regional economic communities in eastern and southern Africa have set June 2021 as the deadline to achieve the threshold of 14 ratifications required to enable the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) enter into force.
Zambia has become the latest country to ratify the Tripartite Free Trade Area, bringing the number of countries that have ratified the agreement and deposited the instruments to nine. The agreement, being pursued by COMESA, the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), needs a total of 14 countries to enter into force.
Taiwan’s Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association encouraged Taiwanese companies to take advantage of free trade deals in Africa.
The COMESA Business Council recently convened a webinar on “Unlocking Food Security Through Improved Seed Trade in COMESA” aimed at discussing issues of access to quality and affordable seed and challenges in trade facilitation in the movement of seed across borders amidst COVID-19.
Kenya is reluctant to seek extension of safeguards that protect the country from importation of cheap sugar from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).
At least 82% of the reported Non-Tariff Barriers in the COMESA region are those imposed on imports and exports of goods and services and are largely operational by design. According to trade experts, these type of NTBs are easy to identify and monitor.
With the growing concern over the traditional ISDS system, it is highly unlikely that the AfCFTA will include an ISDS mechanism giving investors access to go to international arbitration under conventional international tribunals.
Under market integration, 22 countries out of 28 have now signed the TFTA Agreement, while eight have signed and ratified.
Namibia is the latest to ratify the TFTA agreement. Seven countries are expected to complete the ratification process before the end of this year paving the way for its implementation.
