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Issue #126 - Friday 19 October 2007 newsletterIssue #256 - 24th June 2010 newsletter

The Common Market for Eastern and

Southern Africa (COMESA) Secretary-

General Sindiso Ngwenya on 22

June, 2010 urged China to enter into joint

ventures with Africa’s largest regional trading

and economic grouping to capitalise on the

Customs Union that was launched in 2009.

COMESA, boasting 19 Member States and

a population of more than 400 million, is

endowed with vast natural and human

resources that make it a fertile investment

destination, Ngwenya said.

“With a combined population of 456 million

and a combined Gross Domestic Product of

USD 450 billion, this region is very rich in

natural resources, rich in human resources

and land for agriculture.

“This region will therefore become the

region of first choice for investment and

has the potential to feed the whole world,”

Ngwenya told Xinhua in an interview.

He said China should take COMESA as

its preferred investment destination and

increase trade with Africa’s largest trading

and economic grouping.

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Ngwenya has previously

urged more Chinese

investment in the

manufacturing sector

so that Africa can move

up the value chain and

increase the incomes of

its people while ensuring

that less wealth is exported

abroad.

Trade between COMESA

Countries and China has

also been growing by

between 50 percent and

100 percent depending on

the country, but on average by more than

50 percent annually, and by the end of 2008,

China-Africa trade was approaching the USD

100 billion mark, according to Ngwenya.

Ngwenya said the COMESA Customs Union

presented immense opportunities for the

Asian giant to deepen and consolidate

economic cooperation with Member

States, most of whom have strong bilateral,

economic and political ties with China. China

has diplomatic relations with nearly all

African countries.

“So with Chinese investors increasingly

looking for investment in Africa, we should,

as COMESA, make it a requirement for

them to enter into joint ventures with our

companies to avoid backlash from our

people who might feel disadvantaged,”

Ngwenya said.

Among others, the COMESA Customs Union

provides for easier trade among Members

States and with other countries outside

COMESA through harmonised trading

systems.

Member States that join the Customs Union

will adopt an agreed Common External Tariff

(CET) to be charged to third parties.

The agreed CET rates are 0 percent on

capital goods, 0 percent on raw materials,

10 percent on intermediate goods and 25

percent on finished goods.

The policy will also determine revenue

sharing amongst the Customs Union’s

members.

Ngwenya said that with its 19 Member

States, a population of 456 million and

annual imports valued at USD 32 billion and

exports of USD 82 billion, COMESA forms

a major market place for both internal and

external trading.

The regional integration programme for

COMESA Member States established a Free

Trade Area (FTA) in October 2000 and a

Customs Union in 2009, and aims to establish

a monetary union by 2015 and a common

market by 2025.

The Customs Union was launched at the 13th

summit of the COMESA Heads of State and

Government held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe,

in 2009, during which Zimbabwean President

Robert Mugabe assumed the rotational one-

year-chairmanship of the regional economic

grouping.

Meanwhile, Ngwenya said COMESA was

in the process of working out modalities

to access the USD 1 billion China-Africa

Development Fund to benefit COMESA small

and medium entrepreneurs.

The creation of the fund was one of eight

mechanisms for assisting African countries

unveiled by Chinese President Hu Jintao at

the Forum on Africa-China Cooperation held

in Beijing in November 2006.

China urged to explore investment opportunities in COMESA

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The Zambian government has commended the Common Market and Southern Africa

(COMESA) for establishing the COMESA Court of Justice for it helps in solving trade related problems in the COMESA region. This was said by the Zambian Vice President Hon. George Kunda, who also happens to be the Minister of Justice, in a speech read on his behalf by the Deputy Justice Minister Mr. Tood Chilembo.

This was said during the official opening of the 14th Meeting of the Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General held at the COMESA Secretariat from the 24th to25th June 2010.

Hon. Kunda applauded the Preferential Trade Area ( PTA), who are the founding fathers of COMESA, for honouring Zambia to host the COMESA secretariat. “ When the founding fathers of the Preferential Trade Area ( PTA) for East and Southern Africa, the predecessor of COMESA founded the organisation, it pleased them to grant the republic of Zambia the honour of hosting the secretariat and the Zambian Government and its people accepted with humility the trust and honour entrusted to us ”, Hon. Kunda said.The Vice President further said that the meeting which is intended to address legal issues in the COMESA economic integration Agenda, will play a major role in the development of legal instruments such as the Treaty that established the Economic integration Agenda and other COMESA institutions like the COMESA Court of Justice and the PTA Bank.

Hon. Kunda said that the law in general plays an important role in regional integration because it guides Member States in upholding good governance as enshrined in the provisions of Article 6 of the COMESA Treaty.

He reiterated the need for the Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General to develop regional jurisprudence for regional development with a focus on the needs of the people at the grass root levels.

ZAMBIAN GOVERNMENT COMMENDS COMESA COURT OF JUSTICE

“I therefore call upon you Ministers of Justice and the Attorneys General to address your minds to ways in which you can facilitate their domestication at the national level and also ensure their compliance and remember that, its only through the signing and ratification of the legal instruments which you will adopt, that will guarantee success of regional integration”, Hon. Kunda echoed.

Hon Kunda further urged them to create strong linkages between regional and national programmes to effectively ensure compliance of COMESA programmes at national levels.Speaking at the same meeting, COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya stressed that the committee on legal matters is the most important in the COMESA regional integration process because legal framework is the foundation of an effective and productive integration Agenda with important milestones like the Customs Union and the Free Trade Area.Mr. Ngwenya said that COMESA has committed itself to the deepening of integration efforts as reflected by the launching of the Customs Union last year 2009 in Zimbabwe, based on the legal instruments adopted.

“We are now in the process of moving towards the full implementation of the Customs Union because of the legal instruments like the Council regulations on the Customs Union and the customs management regulations”, Ngwenya

said.

The SG also said that COMESA is also making progress in the realization of the tripartite Free Trade Area that will bring together the three regional grouping of Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), East Africa Community(EAC) and the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA).

Mr. Ngwenya said that this will result in the establishment of a Grand Free Trade Area – GFTA, from Cape Town to Cairo and thereafter a single Customs Union.

Mr. Ngwenya said that the need for the legal committee in the transformation to the Grand Free Trade Area will be required because many legal instruments will have to be changed in order to allow the harmonization of programmes.

The meeting was expected to discuss the following issues among others:• TheRenewaloftermsofjudgesofthecourtwhichhasexpired.• TheestablishmentoftheCOMESACourtofJusticeinSudan.• InclusionoftheArabiclanguageasoneoftheCOMESALanguages.• TheDraftCOMESAharmonisedConsumerPriceIndicesRegulation.• TheRevisedCOMESACommonStatisticalRulesandRegulation

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COMESA, in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Trade

Mark Southern Africa, will launch two Trade Information Desks (TID) at the border of Goma and Gisenyi in July 2010. The information desks are in response to the recommendations by traders during cross-border fora by Trading for Peace at various border posts, including Goma, and between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, in July 2008.

The main objective of the TID is to facilitate and support small-scale traders with information related to their everyday issues and answers to the problems they face at the border and/or in trading, through enhancing existing relationships between traders and service providers at border areas. In addition, the TIDs will provide various documents containing information, such as the COMESA Certificate of Origin, the Simplified Customs Document, SPS standards and Non-tariff Barriers, information on transport, accommodation, commodity prices, etc.

The launch of the TIDs follows a call by Rwandan President Paul Kagame for trade between Rwanda and DRC to be enhanced. It also follows a decision by the 9th Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, which was held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe in June 2009, ahead of the 13th Summit of the COMESA Authority of Heads of States and Government. The COMESA Ministers of Foreign Affairs comprise the major organ that deals with issues of peace and security in the COMESA region. At their meeting in Victoria Falls, they requested the COMESA Secretariat to start preparing for a third phase of the Trade for Peace Project.A similar desk was installed in January 2009 at the Kasumbalesa border between DRC and Zambia and it has reported a lot of positive results with respect to providing small-scale traders with relevant information.

The launch, scheduled for 16 July 2010, is expected to be attended by high profile government officials, both from the DRC and Rwanda. COMESA is using the launch of these Information Desks to commemorate the Year of Peace. The year 2010 was declared the Year of Peace and Security for the continent on 31 August 2009 by the Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) on the occasion of the Special Session on the Consideration of the Resolution of Conflict in Africa, held in Tripoli, Libya.

A football tournament between Goma and Gisenyi is also planned as part of the launch, with the view to commemorate 2010, as the African Year of Peace and Security

The 15th Meeting of the Committee of Legal Experts was held at the COMESA

Conference Centre in Lusaka, Zambia on 21-23 June 2010. The meeting took place ahead of the regional Ministerial meeting of Ministers of Justice and Attorneys’ General scheduled for 24-25 June 2010.

The Acting Secretary General, Mr. Stephen Karangizi, officially opened the meeting. He acknowledged that COMESA as an organisation, was growing in leaps and bounds evidenced by the participation of legal experts. He noted that as part of the Agenda the meeting should once again amend and improve COMESA Laws and Regulations to be in tandem with the broader regional integration agenda.

Some important issues on the agenda included the proposed amendment of the COMESA Treaty aimed at introducing Arabic as the fourth working language of COMESA for the Arab speaking members and trade partners. Mr. Karangizi added that this will in turn open and increase the market

TRADE INFORMATION DESK

TO BE LAUNCHED AT GOMA/

GISENYI

Committee of Legal Experts prepares ground for Ministerial Meeting

for COMESA trade activities with the Arab world.

The COMESA Court of Justice issues on the agenda included the consideration of the report on the status of court’s permanent structure in Sudan, the renewal of contracts for the Judges’ tenure and administrative issues.

The meeting looked at the updated report on the status of the signed and ratified COMESA instruments which will assist in assessing progress of the regional integration programme.

In their deliberations, the meeting addressed the progress made in the COMESA-EAC-SADC tripartite negotiations.

The recommendations from the meeting were submitted to the COMESA Ministers of Justice that took place on 24-25 June 2010. The Ministers give policy guidelines that will be taken to the COMESA Policy Organs meetings and Summit scheduled for August 2010 in Swaziland for final decision on implementation.

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In the margins of the meeting of the Committee on Trade and Customs, COMESA held a successful meeting

with the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) at the ARIPO Headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe on 18 June 2010. The objective of this meeting was to revive and strengthen the Cooperation Agreement between the two institutions as an important step towards the implementation of the COMESA Intellectual Property and Cultural Rights Policy.

The ARIPO Director General, Mr. Gift Sibanda who welcomed the COMESA delegation, thanked COMESA for it’s decision to revive the ARIPO-COMESA Cooperation Agreement for the benefit of the people of the region.

Similarly, The COMESA Director of Trade, Customs and Monetary Affairs,, Dr. Francis Mangeni, expressed gratitude on the interest shown by ARIPO to collaborate with COMESA in the implementation of the COMESA IP Policy. He pointed out that

A senior official of the Great Jimahiriya announced that Libya prided itself in pursuing progressive trade

liberalisation policies and in having an open procurement regime that was non-discriminatory.In his opening remarks at the opening of the Awareness and Sensitisation Workshop organised by the COMESA Enhancing Procurement Reforms and Capacity Project (EPRCP), held in Tripoli, Libya on 6 -7 June 2010, the under Secretary of the General People’s Committee (Ministry) for Industry, Economy and Trade, Engineer Lutif Musbah Hajrsi welcomed COMESA’s efforts in engaging with Libya to facilitate rapid economic integration.

Engineer Hajrsi stressed that the Great Jamahiriya remains committed to the wider vision of integrating Africa within the context of the African Union charter, which was consistent with the long-held vision of the Leader of the Great Jimahiriya, Muammar Gaddaffi, which is to integrate Africa, politically and economically.

In the opening statement in which Mr. Colas Ziki represented the COMESA Secretary General, the Great Jimahiriya was praised

COMESA intends to mainstream IP in all COMESA programmes and activities, and that it was encouraging that ARIPO has shown interest in attending the COMESA Policy Organs meetings scheduled for August 2010, under the theme of “Harnessing Science and Technology for Regional Integration”.

The meeting extensively analysed the current Cooperation Agreement signed in March 2002. It was noted that the current Agreement does not appropriately reflect ARIPO’s mandate on industrial property and copyright matters, the COMESA vision and emerging IP issues. The meeting elaborated a new Agreement which the two organisations will review further.

Some of the areas of collaboration identified include: creation of favourable investment climate through protection of intellectual property; support services to Research and Development institutions; capacity building; promotion of traditional knowledge, expressions of folklore and genetic resources; exchange of

information and documents on activities by the respective organisations; work plans to form the basis for planning and implementation of joint activities; and representation in meetings.

On immediate activities, ARIPO indicated that it will attend the COMESA Policy Organs meetings to be held in Swaziland in August 2010 whereas COMESA indicated that it will attend the ARIPO Diplomatic Conference to be held in Namibia in August 2010. In addition, the two organisations will jointly organise a meeting of IP experts to discuss the COMESA Work Programme on implementation of the COMESA IP Policy. Further, they will jointly undertake an audit of IP policies, laws and institutions in Member States and undertake studies on the contribution of IP to the national economies.

It was agreed that another meeting be convened before November 2010 to discuss and agree on the annual activities which will be submitted to the respective organisations’ decision-making bodies.

COMESA – ARIPO Cooperation to be strengthened

for its active participation in COMESA programmes since joining the COMESA Free Trade Area in Year 2005.

For regional integration to work effectively, the Great Jimahiriya was encouraged to ensure that the following COMESA-wide Customs Union supportive activities are given urgent attention:

(i) Adoption and implementation of the COMESA Tariff Nomenclature (CTN) and the Common External Tariff (CET);

(ii) Submission of sensitive list of products which should be excluded from the CET;

(iii) Production of tariff alignments schedules that require the matching of national tariff structures against the COMESA CET; and finally

(iv) Domesticatiion provisions of the Regional Trade Policy including those of the Council Regulations Governing the Customs Union and the Common Market Customs Management Regulations.

On procurement reforms, it was noted that efficient and effective public procurement

systems were essential for the achievement of government missions and that good and modernised procurement systems were crucial to the effectiveness of public spending and investment. Equally crucial was the need for the Great Jimahiriya to align its procurement systems to the COMESA Procurement Directives and the COMESA Regional Procurement Regulations which are all key founding instruments of the regional procurement market. Some key recommendations that came out of the Workshop were:

1) Organise more information sharing workshops. The workshop requested the COMESA Secretariat to organise a regional workshop, in Libya in the beginning of 2011, on COMESA Procurement system in order to give opportunity toMember States to share their experiences and best practices.

2) A body responsible for public procurement be established in the Great Jamahiriya.

3) The Great Jamahiriya sends a group of experts to participate in the 4th Technical Committee meeting on Procurement which will be held in the Kingdom of Swaziland.

The Great Socialist Peoples’ Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is ready to reform