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COMESA Regional Trade Agreements - the Zambian Experience

CUTS-ARC Policy Brief No.3/2003

Posted with permission of the Lusaka office of CUTS-ARC.
For further information on their programmes contact Sajeev Nair at: cutsarc@zamnet.zm
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Introduction

In October 2000, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) launched a Free Trade Area (FTA). Nine out of the 20 COMESA countries took part. Now they are 11. Since then, COMESA members have been working to establish a common external tariff, a customs union, a common monetary union with a common currency, a common visa arrangement leading to the free movement of people, and achieving free movement of capital and investment supported by the adoption of common investment practices.

COMESA aims to pool collective resources to support the economic development efforts of member countries. This approach is aimed at achieving full economic co-operation through a gradual process starting with the creation of the FTA, then a Customs Union, followed by a Common Market and ending with an Economic Community. This is in line with its common vision of a fully integrated, internationally competitive regional economic community with high standards of living for its entire people; a community ready to amalgamate with six other regional economic groupings that constitute the building blocks of the African Economic Community.



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