JOHANNESBURG - Negotiations for a Tripartite Free Trade Area, which Zimbabwe and other Southern African countries are likely to sign, will be launched before the end of this year, says South Africas President Jacob Zuma The FTA will consist of 26 countries located within SADC, the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for East African States (Comesa) regional economic communities.
We have gone a step ahead at a continental level, as we prepare for an ambitious trade development agenda under the auspices of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Common Market of East and Southern Africa (COMESA) and East African Community (EAC) Tripartite Free Trade Area negotiations, said Zuma during his brief to members of the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) which comprises South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.
These will be launched at the occasion of the second summit later this year and I am confident that our decisions will help us take forward the pursuit of deeper regional integration through common policy development and common institutions.
Zuma however, warned that success of the free trade area would require the forging of common policies, strategies and programmes responsive to an increasingly complex and dynamic global political and economic environment.
He also emphasised the need to advance the promotion of cross-border trade and development, together with the establishment of new partnerships with regional, continental and global trade entities that will contribute to member states development agenda priorities. We must also design and implement programmes that will ensure sustainable development in all our member countries and we believe therefore, that these high-level deliberations have been particularly valuable, added the South African leader.
We are aware that the complex nature of this work creates its own set of challenges, but we must forge ahead and develop the necessary strategies to promote win-win solutions.
Zimbabwe and South Africa already have another treaty the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection (BIPPA), signed on November 27 2009, aiming to promote trade between the two neighbouring countries, but South Africas opposition parties and human rights groups have accused Harare of disrespecting the terms of the agreement, which it solely relies on to try and get its battered economy back on track.
It now remains to be seen if President Robert Mugabes intransigent administration will honour the FTA once it has been signed. In the past government officials, including minister of presidential affairs Didymus Mutasa, have actually said that such agreements are not worth the paper they are written on.
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