Grand FTA launch time has come

Kizito Sikuka Correspondent
AFRICA’S long-standing vision is an integrated, prosperous and united continent. This vision will come closer to reality in December when the largest integrated market covering 26 countries in eastern and southern Africa is established.

Commonly-known as the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA), the integrated market will comprise the Comesa, the East African Community (EAC) and Sadc.

The establishment of a single and enlarged market is expected to boost intra-regional trade and deepen regional integration through improved investment flows and enhanced competition.

In fact, this integrated arrangement will create a combined population of some 625 million people covering half of the member states of the African Union and a Gross Domestic Product of about US$1.2 trillion.

According to a statement released by Comesa, which is spearheading the implementation process as chair of the Tripartite Taskforce, the proposed Grand FTA will be launched in December during a Tripartite Summit to be held in Egypt.

This follows a series of intense consultations and negotiations that have been going on since 2008 when the three regional economic blocs made a commitment to work together in regional integration during their historic summit held in Kampala, Uganda.

The commitment shown by the three economic communities has now proved fruitful as the Grand FTA is within sight and becoming a reality.

Meeting in Bujumbura, Burundi on October 24-25, the Tripartite Sectoral Committee of Comesa-EAC-Sadc ministers agreed to launch the Grand FTA in December, saying the region was now ready for an integrated market.

“The decision to launch the Tripartite FTA took into account the fact that the majority of the Tripartite Member/Partner States have made ambitious tariff offers and were agreed on Rules of Origin to be applied in the interim while further work continues on product specific Rules of Origin,” Comesa Executive Secretary Sindiso Ngwenya, who is also the chairperson of the Comesa-EAC-Sadc Tripartite Taskforce, said in a statement.

According to the roadmap developed by the three regional economic communities in June 2011 in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Grand FTA was expected to have been established in June 2014.

However, this was not possible due to a combination of factors including limited financial resources, as well as dragging negotiations over some major sticking points such as agreement on the rules of origin, trade remedies and dispute settlement, customs co-operation, documentation procedures and transit instruments.

Negotiations for the TFTA have been conducted in three different phases namely the preparatory phase, phase one and phase two.

The preparatory phase mainly covered the exchange of all relevant information including tariffs, applied national tariffs as well as trade data and measures.

Phase one of negotiations covered core FTA issues of tariff liberalisation, rules of origin, customs procedures and simplification of customs documentation, transit procedures among other issues.

Facilitating movement of business persons within the region was negotiated in parallel with the first phase.

The last stage of negotiations, which is phase two, deals with trade in services and trade related issues including intellectual property rights and trade development and competitiveness.

Negotiations under this phase are currently on-going and nearing completion in time for the historic launch of the Grand FTA in December.

Plans to establish Africa’s largest integrated market are being followed keenly by the AU and other regional economic communities on the continent that wants to learn from this experience.

Under the African Economic Community Treaty signed in 1991, Africa aims to establish a continent-wide FTA and the pending single market is regarded as one of the building blocks for the continental target.

Therefore, once operational, the TFTA will be used as a benchmark for deeper regional and continental integration in Africa.

In fact, the AU Commission considers the tripartite arrangement as a “best practice” that other regional communities should emulate towards the realization of Africa’s vision of an integrated, prosperous and united continent. — sardc.net