Southern Africa: Zuma Opens Tripartite FTA Talks

Johannesburg — Africa's proposed Free Trade Area (FTA) would require better transport infrastructure and strategies to reduce poverty, President Jacob Zuma said in Johannesburg on Sunday.

"We need to align developmental strategies and programmes aimed at poverty alleviation, under-development, food security and the like across national, regional and continental boundaries," he said in remarks prepared for delivery.

He was speaking at the SADC Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the East African Community (EAC) summit.

The FTA, which would allow members to trade without import quotas or tariffs, would span 26 countries from the northern to the southern tip of Africa and integrate three existing trade blocs.

It would help accelerate regional integration, aimed at ensuring African countries traded with each other on better terms.

Zuma said removing barriers to intra-African trade would in themselves not lead to the realisation of "our full potential for growth and development".

"We must simultaneously design interventions that will... fully take advantage of more open regional markets.

"We must therefore act purposefully to strengthen and identify competitive advantages in value added production and trade, including through the development of complementary cross-border value chains."

He called for better transport infrastructure, documentation, and the overall administrative procedures associated with cross-border trade.

The alliance countries also had to develop and grow their regional production bases and diversify the products they traded.

In attendance were Comesa chair King Mswati III of Swaziland, SADC chair President Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia and President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, the chair of EAC.

June 12, 2011

Source: Allafrica.com