Tripartite Summit

Heads of State and Government of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) launched negotiations for the Establishment of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (FTA) in today’s summit held in Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Upon its establishment, the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite FTA will benefit nearly six hundred million (600m) people in the region from 26 countries with a total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of approximately one trillion United States Dollars (US$1.0 trillion).

It is anticipated that the Tripartite FTA will be the largest in the continent uniting countries with vast natural resources, creating infrastructural development connecting Cape to Cairo, and establish trade corridors from DRC to Mauritius, paving a way for greater prosperity and faster integration of the continent.

In their Summit Communiqué, Heads of State and Government agreed that the tripartite initiative is a decisive step to achieve the vision of African Union to establish African Economic Community that will harmonize trade policies and programs that already exist in Regional Economic Communities.

According to the AU documentation, regional integration is one of the factors that sustained Africa’s growth in the last decade.

Giving the status of the EAC integration process during the opening ceremony of the Tripartite Summit, its current Chairperson H.E Pierre Nkurunziza, President of the republic of Burundi said the EAC is at a very advanced level of integration.

Adding to the significance of the Tripartite FTA, Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commision H.E Mr. Erastus Mwencha said the Tripartite FTA process will not only be of immense benefit to the three regions, but also to the entire continent and most importantly, to the business community.

The Second COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Summit dubbed “Deepening COMESA-EAC-SADC Integration” adopted a three-pillar approach for the Tripartite integration namely Market Integration based on the Tripartite FTA, Infrastructure Development and Industrial Development.

In addition to the launch of negotiations for FTA, the summit also adopted negotiating principles, processes, institutional framework as well as a roadmap for the establishment of the said FTA.