Business
Africa’s Tripartite FTA to be launched this December
SADC chair, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe said at the 34th SADC Heads of State and Government Summit held in the resort town of Victoria Falls in August that the region and the rest of the African continent have a lot to benefit from this new trade arrangement. “The prospects of an expanded market and the exploitation of our comparative advantage within the tripartite arrangement, can only stimulate intra-Africa trade and lend itself to a multiplier effect on our earnings,” he said.
COMESA, EAC and SADC led by their respective executive secretaries Ngwenya, Richard Sezibera, and Stergomena Tax have all pledged to make the tripartite arrangement a success.
The launch of the Tripartite FTA is regarded as the first phase of implementing a developmental regional integration strategy that places high priority on infrastructure development, industrialisation and free movement of business persons.
Kizito Sikuka is an award-winning journalist who has written extensively on developmental issues covering food security, climate change, the environment, trade and gender. He is based in Harare, Zimbabwe.
