Government officials and senior African trade experts on Thursday, May 4, applauded steps taken towards eliminating trade barriers on the continent under the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) but were quick to blame low trade on the anti-competitive character of some business people.

The officials were speaking during the 10-year anniversary celebrations of the COMESA Competition Commission which kicked off Thursday in Lilongwe, Malawi.

"Despite the remarkable progress that our COMESA region has made in facilitating trade, particularly through the removal of tariff barriers, other barriers to trade still exist which among them include the anti-competitive conduct of some businesses who tend to abuse their dominant position in the market to the detriment of competing businesses and consumers,” Simplex Chithyola, Malawi’s Minister of Trade and Industry who represented President Lazarus Chakwera, said while opening the two-day anniversary celebrations.

The Lilongwe-based Commission is a regional body established under Article 6 of the Regulations made under the Treaty establishing COMESA, with a mandate to prohibit certain anticompetitive business practices incompatible with the objectives of the Common Market in so far as they affect trade between member states. Rwanda is one of the 21 member states of the regional bloc.

Chithyola told the audience which included Commissioners, and several heads of various competition agencies across the continent that: "The existence of such conduct entails the absence of competitive markets thus resulting in the increased risks of harm to consumers through lower quality products, limited product choices, and exploitative prices.”

The Minister also announced that his Government had offered land to the Commission for the construction of its headquarters, to facilitate its work, and pledged his government’s continued support to the Commission.

The COMESA Secretary-General, Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe, said preferential trade amongst the COMESA member states is essential for reducing the cost of doing business in the Common Market and translates into better prices of COMESA originating products and services; and a wider choice of these goods and services for the Common Market citizens.

She said that the creation of the Commission was to mitigate risks of unfair business conduct and exploitation of consumers by unscrupulous businesses which engage in strategies to drive out competitors from the market to maximize their profits and to divide the common market, which is inimical to the single market imperative of the COMESA treaty.

"The COMESA Member States foresaw this risk and therefore pursuant to Article 55 of the COMESA Treaty agreed to prohibit any practice that negates the objective of free and liberalised trade and to this end prohibited any agreements between undertakings or concerted practices, which have as their objective or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the Common Market,” she said.

The COMESA Competition Commission Chief Executive Officer, Willard Mwemba, said the absence of competition in any market results in higher prices for goods and services, limited choices for consumers, and heightened risks of inferior products or services available to consumers, thereby putting consumers at a higher risk of exploitation in such markets.

"Further, micro, small and medium enterprises which are a common characteristic in most of the COMESA Member States are put at a higher risk of not growing and may exit the market due to anticompetitive business conduct by dominant players or due to the lack of competition in our markets,” he said.

The Head of the COMESA Competition Commission said the commission has investigated around 44 consumer cases. As regards the investigation of restrictive business practices, Mwemba said the commission has investigated slightly over 40 cases including the "Investigation into Agreements between the Confédération Africaine de Football, Lagardere Sports SAS, Orange SA and TOTAL SA relating to the commercialization of marketing rights for CAF competitions” and as well the investigation into resale price maintenance by the Coca-Cola company, among others.