The COMESA Council of Ministers has urged member States that have not signed the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) Agreement to do so and those that have signed to start the ratification process.

In their Sixth Extra Ordinary meeting in Lusaka Zambia on 3rd – 4th March 2016, the Ministers noted that since the launch of the TFTA in June 2015, 16 out of the 26 countries had signed the agreement. So far, none of the tripartite countries have ratified the Agreement.

Those that have signed include Angola, Burundi, Comoros, D R Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Seychelles, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

Giving an update on the status of the TFTA, the COMESA Secretariat reported that national consultations on signing were on-going in Lesotho and Seychelles while similar consultations on ratification were underway in Sudan, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

At the Summit that launched the TFTA in June 2015, in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, the Heads of State and Government directed the tripartite member and partners States to expedite the conclusion of the outstanding negotiation issues. These were in the Phase I of the negotiations process covering tariff offers, trade remedies and Rules of Origin. A time-frame of 12 months from the date of the launching was given to conclude the issues.

The tripartite was founded on three pillars namely, market integration, industrial development and infrastructure development. Phase I covers the market integration pillar which includes the removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers; as well as the implementation of trade facilitation measures, all of which are essential for the establishment of a well-functioning Tripartite FTA.

The Ministers were informed that considerable amount of work had been done during three subsequent meetings convened by the technical working groups on Rules of Origin, and Trade remedies. As a result, six out of seven annexes that had been finalized were submitted to legal scrubbing.

These are Annexes 3,5,6,7,8,9 on non-tariff barriers, customs cooperation, trade facilitation, transit trade and transit facilitation, technical barriers to trade and sanitary and phytosanitary measures respectively.

Tariff negotiations take place bilaterally between and among the tripartite/ member States and Customs territories. The outcomes of these bilateral negotiations are then presented to the Tripartite Trade Negotiation Forum.

In their final decisions, the Ministers urged member States to confirm their tariff offers to other TFTA member/Partners States and submit their tariff 2012 books to the Secretariat by 30 April 2016. The books should show clearly all current trade regimes they participate in and duties on products originating from TFTA countries.

On rules of origin, the Ministers noted that 47.9 per cent of all chapters relating to the negotiation on list rules remained outstanding and these represented 55% of total intra-tripartite trade value.

Further, the Ministers supported the adoption and approval for legal scrubbing on the Annexes on Rules of Origin and a dynamic approach to the negotiation of the rules based on key identified indicators.