Lusaka, Monday, October 10, 2022: Progress on the implementation of the COMESA liberalization programme on trade in services in the COMESA region is the focus of a three- day meeting of experts that got underway in Lusaka, Zambia today. This is the 12th meeting of the Committee on Trade in Services (TIS) whose key mandates include trade negotiations amongst Member States.
During this meeting, the Committee will review the status of negotiations including what has been achieved and the challenges faced, with the goal being to conclude negotiations on the sectors that have been prioritized for liberalization. These are communication, finance, tourism, transport, business, construction and energy-related services.
Assistant Secretary General of COMESA, Dr Kipyego Cheluget, who opened the meeting noted that even though trade liberalization is a continuous process, the negotiations on COMESA trade in services (TIS) liberalisation programme has been lagging.
“Trade in services accounts for more than 70 per cent of the global output and 51.1 per cent of labour force and thus playing a significant role in the COMESA economies,” he said. “A slow pace of negotiations cannot deliver effectively the expected results and within the given time- frames.”
He proposed to delegates to move the TIS agenda to the next level by removing restrictive practices that stand on the way of trade liberalization and find alternative solutions to harness the benefits of liberalized services in the region. This will guarantee preferential market access for regional businesspersons in both goods and the negotiated services sectors thus enabling regional businesses and suppliers to expand and strengthen existing value chains as “beyond-the-border” barriers in services are being dismantled.
The advancement of the negotiations on TIS is also expected to reflect the commitment of COMESA towards the creation of a transparent, stable, and predictable environment for trade in services in the region and in the global markets. More significantly, Dr Cheluget noted, it will place the COMESA Free Trade Area regime among the few in the world that guarantee its membership preferential market access for both goods and services.
The first session of the meeting was dedicated to updates on initiatives by the Secretariat on the development of programmes that are expected to bolster transparency and efficiency in the implementation of the COMESA services trade framework and negotiations. Notable among these is the establishment of the Online Platform for Trade in Services, which will be used by Member States to exchange offers and requests between them. The platform is being developed with support of the Afreximbank. It was presented to the delegates by Mr Emeka Onyia for review.
The other report shared during the meeting was on the outcomes of the World Bank/World Trade Organization and African Union Commission regulatory audits, which mapped all relevant legislation and regulations for AU Members, including many COMESA Member States.
The recommendations from the Committee meeting will be presented to the COMESA Intergovernmental Committee and the Council of Ministers meeting scheduled next month.