Salva Kiir leads Sudan’s delegation to COMESA summit
May 21, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The first vice president, Salva Kiir has left for the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, leading the Sudanese delegation to attend COMESA summit which begins on Tuesday 22 May and continues for two days.
Leaders of the 20-member Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa are expected tomorrow to approve the final steps leading to the launch of a customs union by December 2008.
Members of the trade bloc, commonly known by its acronym COMESA, have been negotiating a customs union since 2005. COMESA has been a free trade area since October 2000 but only 13 of its 20 members have signed on to the free trade area agreement.
Leaders of the bloc will also discuss the group’s negotiations with the European Union on a series of trade deals called the economic partnership agreements that are set to be concluded by the year’s end in order to comply with World Trade Organization rules.
The economic partnership agreements are aimed at replacing the existing trade deal between the European Union and 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific nations that allows these countries to export a number of goods to Europe duty-free, among other things.
The 12 year-old COMESA, whose secretariat is based in Lusaka, Zambia, has a total population of 389 million and an estimated total gross domestic product of US$200 billion (A148 billion).
The value of trade within COMESA countries rose to US$6.3 billion in 2005, from US$4.5 billion in 2004, according to the Kenyan Trade and Industry Ministry.
COMESA’s members are Angola, Burundi, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
(ST)