‘High time that regional trade blocs harmonise procedures’

ALTHOUGH THE correct scene may have been set for talks about a trade bloc amalgamation, that’s probably too dramatic an interpretation, according to Duncan Bonnett, partner in trade consultancy, Whitehouse & Associates. This follows confirmation that the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC) will convene a tripartite meeting in October to discuss the harmonisation of trade in the region. It’s more of a harmonisation exercise, Bonnett added, with a welter of customs practices and documentation out there that needs to be commonised to make trade easier. The description of the agenda at the Uganda-hosted meeting by Comesa secretary-general, Sindiso Ngwenya, said the meeting would address issues of the creation of a free trade union and a customs union. Ngwenya added that it would also consider establishing an institutional mechanism to aid the implementation of the tripartite meeting's decisions and programmes. He pointed out that regional organisations were the building blocks of the African economy and hence the need to integrate and implement programmes jointly. Bonnett suggested that although amalgamating Comesa and the SADC – and reducing the alphabet soup of trade groups and bi-lateral trade agreements on the continent – was possibly an ultimate goal, it was too soon to expect such a critical move. Harmonisation of documents and facilitating trade between the blocs were more the matter of the moment. “It’s certainly high time the regional blocs got together and discussed how to make trade easier between them,” he said.