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THE Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) has called for comprehensive research on pharmaceuticals production and trade flows within the region to determine trade and competitiveness opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry.
The African region continues to rely more on developed states for supply of major pharmaceutical products and the challenge became prominent during the Covid-19 period where the continent lagged behind in terms of vaccination rollout.
Among the resolutions of the four-day Comesa Annual Research Forum, which ended Thursday in Cairo, Egypt, delegates who included eminent scholars, regional and international experts from the public and private sector, stressed the need to strengthen mobilisation of resources to promote science, technology and innovation activities.
They said this was critical in building the continent’s resilience in line with the theme of the forum: “Enhancing Business Competitiveness and Resilience to Boost Intra-Comesa Trade”.
In a press statement after the meeting, Comesa said eight research papers based on emerging topical issues in economics, trade and regional integration at continental and global level were presented for review. They included a study on the trade implications of the cross-border data transfer laws/policies in the Comesa region, which was conducted by Mr Adam Willie from Zimbabwe.
Titled “Cross Border Data Exchange under the Comesa Digital Free Trade Area (DFTA): Implications on Intra-Regional Trade”, the study found that 43 percent of member states do not have national data protection law, which acts as a barrier to data flow.
The study also established that the presence of data protection laws increases intra-Comesa trade.
“There is also heterogeneity in data protection laws in the region, a situation, which hurts intra-Comesa trade” said Mr Willie. “Therefore, harmonisation of cross border data flow regulations is critical in boosting intra-Comesa trade.”
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