Single market has many benefits. With full freedom of movement for all the factors of production between the member countries, the factors of production become more efficiently allocated, further increasing productivity. For both business within the market and consumers, a single market is a very competitive environment, making the existence of monopolies more difficult. This means that inefficient companies will suffer a loss of market share and may have to close down. However, efficient firms can benefit from economies of scale, increased competitiveness and lower costs, as well as expect profitability to be a result.
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa is a free trade area with nineteen member states stretching from Libya to Zimbabwe. COMESA formed in December 1994, replacing a Preferential Trade Area which had existed since 1981. Nine of the member states formed a free trade area in 2000 Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with Rwanda and Burundi joining the FTA in 2004 and the Comoros and Libya in 2006. COMESA is one of the pillars of the African Economic Community.
The COMESA Centre is the headquarters of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. It houses the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Secretariat and has been the venue for a number of independent negotiations with cooperating partners and many COMESA conferences, including intergovernmental and Technical committees meetings. The COMESA Centre is located in the Central Business Area of Lusaka city. The COMESA Centre is home to the Secretary General's Office and most of the one hundred fifty plus staff members and the organization divisions. Many of the organization’s functions are carried out from COMESA Centre. The majority of the Secretariat’s staff is based at its Lusaka, Zambia headquarters. There is a smaller sub-section of the Secretariat staff in Cairo, Egypt under the Regional Investment Agency, Brussels, Belgium and Addis Abba, Ethiopia. Besides carrying out the Secretariat's key functions, the headquarters continues to serve as a base for many intergovernmental meetings and negotiations. Contact Information Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Secretariat.
The Partner States agrees to eliminate tariff, non-tariff and technical barriers to trade; harmonies and mutually recognize standards and implement a common trade policy for the Community; and ease cross-border movement of persons and adopt an integrated border management system. COMESA has formed various institutions in order to help the people such as FEMCOM, COMESA clearing house, PTA bank, COMESA court of justice etc. They have undertaken development of various sectors like trade customs and monetary affairs, infrastructure, agriculture and natural resources, information technology, finance and budgeting, gender and social affair, strategic planning , legal and institutional affairs , information resources , internal audit etc.
Article Source: http://www.compensationsecrets.co.uk/
Rate This Article |
Add Comments |
Send To Friends
