Africa's largest trading bloc urges member states to ratify tripartite free trade deal

LUSAKA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The 20th Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) summit ended Thursday with a call on member states to speed up efforts to ratify a tripartite free trading agreement.

In a final communiqué issued after the two-day summit held in Lusaka the Zambian capital, the summit urged member countries to ratify the free trade agreement signed by COMESA, East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional blocs.

The summit heard that only Egypt, Kenya and Uganda have ratified the agreement which requires 14 ratifications for it to enter into force.

According to the communiqué, member states should ratify the agreement so that it may be used as a basis for implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

The tripartite free trade agreement was launched in June 2015 and set a stage for the establishment of a single market for the 26 African countries in the eastern and southern region.

A total of 22 countries out of 26 have now signed the agreement which brings together a population of 700 million people, with an estimated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile the summit also urged member countries to mobilize resources for implementation of priority regional infrastructure projects as well as condemned terrorism in all its forms and expressed support for all measures established to counter terrorisms and violent extremism.

Held under the theme "COMESA-Towards Digital Economic Integration", the summit called for the need for countries to embrace the digital era as it was vital for economic development.

The summit saw the appointment of a new secretary-general of the regional bloc as well as the admission of Tunisia and Somalia, bringing the membership to 21.

Chileshe Kapwepwe, Zambia's former deputy minister of finance became the first female to become the head of the regional bloc for the next five years after the stepping down of Zimbabwe's Sindiso Ngwenya who has been at the helm for the last 10 years.