BY PAUL TENTENA
LIVINGSTONE, ZAMBIA- The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) that will see the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) blocs merge into one free trading bloc is in steady progress according to Francis Mangeni, the Director of Trade and Customs at the COMESA secretariat.
Mangeni says that Twenty four Member States have signed the Declaration with only Libya and Eritrea, who are members of COMESA yet to sign.
“The TFTA Agreement has been signed by 20 of the 26 member countries, namely Angola, Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, State of Libya, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
“The Republic of South Africa and the Republic of Madagascar signed the TFTA Agreement on 7 July and 13 July 2017, respectively. The Agreement requires 14 ratifications to enter into force. So far, no country has ratified it,