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The Joint Meeting of the
COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Sectoral Ministerial Committee took place on 29th
-30th May 2015 in Dar es Salaam. The purpose of the meeting was to
consider progress made in preparation for the Third COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite
Summit to be held on 10th June 2015.
The Tripartite Summit
launched the Free Trade Area in 2011 when SADC took over the chairpersonship and
will be handing over the chairpersonship to COMESA at the third Summit
scheduled to take place in June, 2015. Negotiations are at advanced stages and
the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area is expected to be launched at
Sharm El Sheikh on 10th June, 2015.
When concluded, the
Tripartite FTA will encompass 26 Member States, that is, half of the African
Continent with a GDP of over US$1.2 trillion that represents over 50% of the
Continent’s GDP, and a population of 625 million. When operational, it will
become a means for enhancing economic inter-linkages and enabling business
environment to unlock regional potentials, scale up productive capacities and
competitiveness, stimulating beneficiations and value chains, enhancing
technological set-ups. More importantly, the TFTA will also address the issue
of overlapping membership that has resulted in a number of challenges for the
region’s business and trading community. It is foreseen that the TFTA will
constitute an important foundation for the continental free trade area
negotiations that will be launched by the African Union Summit in June 2015
towards the realisation of Agenda 2063 of the African Union.
Ministers reiterated the importance of making tariff
offers and concluding related negotiations expeditiously. In this regard they
decided that MemberStates that had not exchanged
tariff offers do so within 6 -12 months and those that have exchanged and are
negotiating tariff offers should endeavour to conclude within 12 months. They
noted that rules of origin are a crucial element for the TFTA and therefore
Member States needed to expedite work to finalise outstanding areas and agree
on the Tripartite rules of origin that will be applied in the new TFTA.
The Meeting also endorsed the
transitional arrangements on trade remedies that will apply to the TFTA pending
the finalisation of a complete Annex in this area. It should be noted that the
TFTA Agreement already includes detailed dispute settlement disciplines and a
completed Annex on Tripartite Dispute Settlement Mechanism.
It is worth noting that
the SADC region has adopted a Strategy and Roadmap on Industrialisation and
therefore the incorporation of the pillars on Industry and Infrastructure are
important and strategic components for the success of the Tripartite agenda.
From a SADC perspective the Industrialisation work programme should result in
the economic and technological transformation of the region, engender
competitiveness as an active process to move from comparative advantage to
competitive edges, reinforce regional integration and ultimately the
development and economic prosperity of the Community. SADC would be implementing
this strategy jointly with other regional priorities outlined in the Regional
Infrastructure Development Medium Term Plan and the Regional Indicative
Strategic Development Plan.
The SADC Industrialisation
Strategy is anchored on three pillars, namely: Industrialisation as a champion
of economic and technological transformation; competitiveness as an active
process to move from comparative advantage to competitive edges, and Regional
integration and geography as the context for industrial development and
economic prosperity. The important features of the Industrialisation Strategy
are focused programmes aimed at enhancing economic inter-linkages to unlock
regional potentials, scaling up productive capacities and competitiveness,
stimulating beneficiations and value chains, enhancing technological set-ups,
and improving the business enabling environment. The implementation of the
strategy will be underpinned on sound policies and appropriate enabling
environment across the Member States.
In
the area of ICT, commendable progress has been made in the SADC region with the
roll out of Digital Terrestrial Migration equipment given the looming ITU
switch-over deadline of 17 June, 2015.
SADC
has developed and adopted the Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan (RIDMP)
which defines SADC’s infrastructure development strategy and constitute basis
for prioritization of projects, as well as the modus operandi for
implementation. The RIDMP constitutes the approved SADC Regional Infrastructure
Development Programme and guides the process of selection and implementation of
regional infrastructure projects at the level of feasibility assessments,
preparation for bankability and investment.
It also constitutes the basis for SADC Member States commitment to a
common infrastructure development programme.
NB: For any further information and
clarification, SADC Executive Secretary, H.E. Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax is
available for an interview.
For inquiries: Dr. Charles Mubita
0682994688
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