Introduction
In October 2000, the Common Market for Eastern and
Southern Africa (COMESA) launched a Free Trade Area
(FTA). Nine out of the 20 COMESA countries took part.
Now they are 11. Since then, COMESA members have been
working to establish a common external tariff, a customs
union, a common monetary union with a common currency,
a common visa arrangement leading to the free movement
of people, and achieving free movement of capital and
investment supported by the adoption of common
investment practices.
COMESA aims to pool collective resources to support the
economic development efforts of member countries. This
approach is aimed at achieving full economic co-operation
through a gradual process starting with the creation of the
FTA, then a Customs Union, followed by a Common Market
and ending with an Economic Community. This is in line
with its common vision of a fully integrated, internationally
competitive regional economic community with high
standards of living for its entire people; a community ready
to amalgamate with six other regional economic groupings
that constitute the building blocks of the African Economic
Community.
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