Malawi calls for more progress on grand FTA
Malawi Minister of Industry and Trade Joseph Mwanamvekha has called on the need to fast-track negotiations towards creating a tripartite Grand Free Trade Area (FTA), which has a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of $1.2 trillion (K540 trillion).
Mwanamvekha said over the weekend in Lilongwe the Grand FTA will be instrumental in addressing infrastructure deficit, inadequate connectivity and industrial development among member States.
The Grand FTA, which has a combined population of 625 million people, covers Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) and the East Africa Community (EAC).
Private sector lobby group Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) president Newton Kambala told Business News yesterday that Malawi being a small economy; hence, a small market, this is a good development as it opens the country to a bigger market and huge opportunities.
“However, it will require Malawians to think more business than what we have done before. Government should also continue to find means to empower Malawian-based businesses or companies so that they can have capacity to compete well in that bloc once this is in place,” he said.
Kambala warned that if the country does not prepare well, “we can also lose part of the already small market in Malawi to our friends in the bloc”, adding that immediately financial institutions should start strategising by bringing in products that can assist local companies to participate in trade with capacity in the new bloc.
Nampak Malawi chief executive officer Simon Itaye also welcomed the coming into place of Grand FTA yesterday, saying it will lessen the burden of trade in Africa.
“This is a welcome development. However, the problem most countries in Africa have is value adding and rules of origin. With one market in place, issues of rules of origin will be sorted out because one has to follow rules of one trade bloc,” he said.
“This will be more beneficial to Malawi than having three trade blocs with overlapping membership.”
Speaking during the first extraordinary meeting of the Comesa-EAC-Sadc Tripartite Trade Negotiating Forum (TTNF), Mwanamvekha said it is sad to note that member States failed to beat the June 2014 deadline for concluding the negotiations.
“Even though we failed to beat the deadline of June 2014 that our principals prescribed for us, it is my hope that this meeting will be a catalyst to expedite the process, more so taking into account the fact that it is the last TTNF before the signing of the agreement,” he said.
Mwamvekha said the grand FTA will help liberate member countries economically by, among other things, promoting regional economic growth through the creation of a conducive environment for regional trade.
“The more inclusive we are, the more successful this tripartite integration will be,” he said, stressing that the grouping will help to propel industrialisation, which he said would boost economic growth within the region.
Mwanamvekha said a detailed time-bound work programme is supposed to be submitted to the next meeting of the Tripartite Council in Egypt later this year.
The first tripartite Summit was held in 2008 in Kampala where heads of State and government agreed that the three regional economic communities (Recs) should start working towards a merger into a single REC.
