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COMESA

Common Market for East and Southern Africa


Duty free bloc lifts value of Comesa trade to Sh420bn
Trade among the 19 Comesa member states is currently worth more than Sh420 billion.
Comesa signs free trade pact with EU
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) has signed an agreement that gives member States uninterrupted European Union market access. The new pact, which covers 25 years will become effective in January next year and is aimed at addressing trade disparities between Europe and Comesa countries.
Industrialists warn against reduction of import tariffs
Kenyan manufacturers have rebuffed calls by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a reduction of import duty.
12th COMESA Summit preparations on course
Trade Minister Mukhisa Kituyi has said preparations for the 12th COMESA Heads of State and Government Summit are on course.
Comesa to discuss EPAs
Heads of government and policy organs of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) will meet in the Kenyan capital Nairobi from May 11-23 to consider the progress made on the Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union among other things.
Farmers want Comesa order extended
Sugar cane farmers have added their voice to demands that Government seeks an extension of the Comesa moratorium, which comes into effect from early next year. The Kenya Sugarcane Grower’s Union officials petitioned President Kibaki to lead the extension campaign to enable local factories and market get ready to compete with the imports from the region.
ESA rejects European bid to bring Comesa into trade talks
The future of talks between 16 Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries and the European Union hangs in the balance after the ESA countries accused the EU of smuggling a document into the agenda at their recent meeting in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura.
Comesa trade tops $7.8 billion as FTA membership reaches 13
Business among Comesa countries has doubled in the past two years, and currently stands at more than $7.8 billion. And the number of countries that have joined the club’s Free Trade Area (FTA) has grown to 13, with others waiting on the sidelines.
Now oil-rich Libya to join Comesa FTA
Libya is to become the second North African country after Egypt to join the Free Trade Area of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa). The implication is that exports from this oil-rich country will now have duty-free access to 13 other Comesa member-states that have so far signed on to the Free Trade Area arrangement.
SD in dilemma over 2008
Swaziland’s private sector has raised concern on which direction the country would take in 2008 when the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) assumes a customs union status.
COMESA, SACU-main vehicles for trade
The Federation of Swaziland Employers and Chamber of Commerce (FSE & CC) has commended the country for its alignment with economic groupings for access to international trade.
Top EU officials arrive in Mombasa to salvage trade talks
Two key European Unions heads of trade and development yesterday jetted into Mombasa to thwart a bid by Eastern and Southern Africa ( ESA) countries to scatter the ongoing negotiations between the two trading blocs.
East Africa: African states warn EU on trade talks
Trade talks between European Union and Eastern and Southern Africa countries are set to be stormy as ESA countries warned the EU against reneging on its earlier promises.
COMESA-EU pact to open up more markets
The Common Market for East and Central African (COMESA) states have begun fresh negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) in a bid to expand domestic markets through strategic trade liberalisation.
Kituyi challenges COMESA on Customs Union
Trade and Industry Minister Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi has asked the COMESA ministerial taskforce to hasten implementation of the regional customs union to achieve the free trading within member-countries.
COMESA urged to speed up integration
Common Markets for Eastern and Southern Africa - Comesa member countries ought to speed up the process in setting up a unified customs union.
East Africa: COMESA wants Tanzania out of SADC
With government seemingly in no hurry to entertain the business community advocating for the country to re-join the COMESA trade bloc, the group does not want to let go.
Bi-Monthly Analysis of Regional Integration (BIMANORI) #1
Nature abhors a vacuum, and so when regional organisations go making ostensibly grandiose claims that they will create a single currency, seek economic convergence, or establish an army, it is easy to speculate that these are not articulated outside a context.
Tanzania’s multi-block membership reaffirmed by SADC
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has okayed Tanzania’s multi-regional block membership, thus paying the way for the east African country to remain in SADC with its East African Community affiliation.
East Africa: Comesa’s transformation into customs union to benefit exporters
The transformation of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) Free Trade Area (FTA) into a Customs Union in the next two years will open up bigger markets for exporters, an industrialist has said.