African officials meet for bigger trading bloc

Officials from 26 African countries are meeting in Kigali, to discuss a planned common market between countries in the three trading blocs of East African Community (EAC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Southern African Development Community (SADC). The meeting will end tomorrow. During the meeting which opened yesterday, William Kayonga the Permanent Secretary, in the Ministry for East Africa Community Affairs called for the speeding up of the efforts to ensure that the three blocs form a common market. Kayonga said the Heads of State from these countries envisaged a free market in place at least by next year, adding that the first step will be to remove taxes for products produced within these countries, a step that the East African Community has already achieved under the Common Market Protocol. “This market will be bigger than the EAC as it will have at least 600 million people,” he said. Kayonga said people will benefit from this free trade zone, not only from their products and industries but also the infrastructure which will be set up to facilitate this intra-regional trade. “While discussing the free trade zone, we are even thinking of improving infrastructure like roads, electricity; people will be facilitated to access this market easily and we will facilitate them to cross borders with ease.

National

African officials meet for bigger trading bloc