The regional technical committees of the East African Community (EAC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) are to hold a joint meeting on October 17 in Kampala.

The senior officials from Eastern Africa regional trading blocs will be meeting to discuss harmonisation of transport policies, joint infrastructure programmes and trade facilitation in the region.

According to Prudence Sebahizi, the Executive Secretary in charge of Regional Cooperation, the meeting will focus on harmonisation of policies and programmes to facilitate trade within the East African region.

"It is important for us to co-operate as a region because there is an issue of overlapping membership. This may pose challenges in implementation of the different programmes within the blocs,” Sebahizi told The New Times in an interview on Wednesday.

He also pointed out that there is need to discuss a harmonised external trade policy to avert conflict of interest within the regional blocs as they negotiate external trade such as trade partnerships with the European Union.

"It is critical for us as a region to discuss foreign trade policies because even if we negotiate independently, at the end of the day what will be signed will affect the whole region. We also want to minimise non-tariff barriers that hinder trade within the region,” he added.

He also said that the East African Community had already taken a step through implementation of the customs union to minimise non-tariff barriers.

"We need to see how such programmes can be adopted by other regions to facilitate trade. The ultimate aim is to enable free movement of people and create a single market and investment area between these countries,” Sebahizi underscored.

The meeting of the technical committees will precede that of permanent secretaries. The Council of Ministers will also hold joint discussions on October 18 and 19 respectively.

To crown the meetings is the summit of 26 African Heads of State from SADC, EAC and COMESA on October 21.

The tripartite summit is intended to hasten the achievement of African economic and political integration under the AU agenda.

The Summit will decide on matters related to enhancing cooperation among EAC, COMESA and SADC, increasing trade, investments, infrastructure, linking transport corridors and promoting joint projects.

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