HARARE: Africa s largest trading bloc COMESA will launch its customs union at a long-delayed summit in Zimbabwe in June, the group s secretary general said on Friday.
We are here to formally announce that the COMESA summit postponed last year is to be held on June 7 and 8 in Victoria Falls, Sindiso Ngwenya, secretary general of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa told journalists in Harare.
We shall have the launching of the COMESA customs union during the summit, he added.
The summit was originally set for May last year, but was twice delayed owing to Zimbabwe s political turmoil and to allow more time for the 19 member countries to negotiate the harmonization of tariffs.
Ngwenya said COMESA had seen an increase in trade amongst its members over the years but trading was still very low.
We have seen an increase in trade from $3.1 billion to $9.2 billion over the years but it still accounts for less than 10 percent of the potential, Ngwenya said.
Ngwenya said the bloc is also mulling financial aid to boost Zimbabwe s ailing economy.
We are not going to talk numbers. We are working with the ministries, governments and industry to discuss their requirements, Ngwenya said.
COMESA covers about 400 million people, linking Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. -AFP
