The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) will be setting up a team to oversee the implementation of a Digital Free Trade Area (DFTA) within the bloc.
This was announced during a recent council of ministers meeting in Lusaka, Zambia.
The DFTA will be an online platform for trade facilitation through three separate segments; electronic trade, logistics and legislation.
The e-trade section is intended to promote electronic commerce by providing a platform for traders to conduct business online while the e-logistics segment will use information and communications technology (ICT) to improve the transportation of goods to customers.
According to a recent Comesa statement, the e-logistics segment will look at the preparedness of countries to put laws in place that enable electronic transactions and payments.
“The DFTA platform will enable duty-free and quota-free trading and provide an online regional market,” the statement read. “Hence, it will empower cross-border traders to do business using ICT, thereby minimising physical barriers.”
The sub-committee will be made up of members of trade, ICT, and other relevant ministries from within the trade bloc’s member states. The Comesa secretariat was also orders to finalise gap analysis of the DFTA by the end of 2018.
