Malawi ready for grand Free Trade Area
Minister of Industry and Trade Joseph Mwanamvekha has said Malawi looks forward to reaping more benefits from the Tripartite Free Trade Area (FTA), which covers Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Eastern African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (Sadc).
The 26 member-States tripartite FTA, popularly known as the grand FTA, was launched in 2005 and has a combined population of 625 million people and a gross domestic product (GDP) of $1.2 trillion hence, poised to be the largest economic bloc on the continent once fully launched in December this year.
Currently, Malawi benefits from a number of bilateral and multilateral agreements.
The country is a member of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, Comesa, Sadc and has since 2005 been party to the EAC-Comesa-Sadc tripartite FTA negotiations.
Mwanamvekha represented Malawi last week at the Tripartite Sectoral Committee of Ministers which met last week in Bujumbura, Burundi.
“The formation of this grand FTA will be beneficial as it would mean zero or reduced tariffs with those three regional economic zones which means we can export more to those countries,” said Mwanamvekha in an interview yesterday.
The minister said the launch of the tripartite FTA will also open up huge markets for investment by local companies as trade will be open among 26 countries.
He said the business community, in particular, will benefit from an improved and harmonised trade regime which he said will reduce the cost of doing business as a result of elimination of overlapping trade regimes due to multiple memberships.
The Tripartite FTA will be the largest economic bloc on the continent and will set for the establishment of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) in 2017.
According to Comesa secretary general Sindiso Ngwenya who is also chairperson for the Tripartite FTA Taskforce, the Tripartite Summit of Heads of State and Government to be held in Egypt in mid-December 2014 would launch the Tripartite Free Trade Area (FTA).
“The decision to launch the Tripartite FTA took into account the fact that the majority of the tripartite member or partner States have made ambitious tariff offers and were agreed on Rules of Origin to be applied in the interim whilst further work continues on product specific Rules of Origin,” he said.
