Negotiations over the establishment of a Tripartite Free Trade Area on trade of goods between the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) have been finalized and will be launched later this year, COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya said during the 34th Council of Ministers meeting currently taking place in Addis Ababa.
The tripartite FTA will not only be a major boost in intra- regional trade but would also stimulate the level of economic activity across the region and reduce poverty through employment creation and wealth generation, Ngwenya said Thursday.

With 26 countries or 48 percent of the membership of the African Union, 56 percent of the population of the continent, the launch of the free trade area is also anticipated to significantly contribute towards establishment of an African single market

Meanwhile, negotiations on the trade in services and trade-related areas such as competition policy and intellectual property rights will commence soon after the launch of the Free Trade Area in goods, he adds.

The intra-trade within the COMESA region reportedly reached $22 billion in 2014 as the intra- trade in SADC and EAC has reached $72 billion and $8.6 billion respectively.

I am confident that the establishment of the Free Trade Area would follow the same growth path, however it should be supported by accelerated growth pace of infrastructure and industrialization, Ngwenya said.

He said even if intra-trade within Africa remains low, the continent recorded intra trade growth from $602 billion in 2005 to $1.2 trillion in 2014.

Source: Star Africa

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