Malawi to benefit from new Comesa deal

Malawi is set to benefit from the new Common Market for East and Central Africa (Comesa) Mutual Recognition Framework (C-MRF), which aims at providing analytical results and recognition of certificates of analysis issued by the laboratories of the participating countries.

According to a statement published on the Comesa website, the framework will address differences in standards and regulations that impede regional trade in maize.

The key components of the MRF are common grading criteria, proficiency testing for Aflatoxin analysis and a risk-based sampling protocol.

Without mutual recognition of standards and certificates of analysis, regulatory barriers persist, causing an unpredictable regulatory environment that comes at a high cost to traders and contributes to the growing informal trade, now estimated at over 80 percent in some countries, according to Comesa.

For example Malawi in the recent past has been issuing maize export bans to protect the crop, an action that has often been condemned by Comesa.

But Ministry of Industry and Trade spokesperson Wiskes Nkombezi said the ban only serve to ensure that traders are remitting taxes and forex to government.

He said: “Government has justified reasons why we place such crops on the ban, we need to maintain the balance of regulating and ensuring that traders are remitting taxes and forex to government.”

Other member countries to benefit from the agreement include Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. n