The tripartite free trade agreement brings together 28 member countries of COMESA, the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The tripartite strategy aims to achieve economic growth by reducing barriers to trade (tariff and non-tariff). The strategy includes the implementation of programs to create and implement the tripartite free trade area, the harmonization and implementation of trade and transport facilitation measures, and the design and implementation of trade support infrastructure. The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) is a draft free trade agreement between the Common Market for East Africa and South Africa (COMESA), the Southern African Development Community (CDAA) and the East African Community (EAC). [1] The common market for COMESA-EAC-SADC comprises 26 countries with a total population of nearly 600 million people and a gross domestic product (GDP) totalling about $1,000 billion. The main objective of the comea-EAC-SADC-Tripartite is to strengthen and deepen the economic integration of the South and East African region. This will be achieved through the harmonization of policies and programmes in the three regional economic communities (REC) in the areas of trade, customs and infrastructure development. Lusaka, Tuesday, February 25, 2020: The implementation of the tripartite free trade agreement is now in sight after an increase in the number of countries that will ratify and ratify the agreement. Eight countries have ratified the agreement to date and there are six left to reach the required threshold of 14 for the agreement to enter into force. On 15 June 2015, negotiations began at the 25th African Union Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the creation of a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) by 2017, with all 54 African Union member states expected to be admitted as members of the Free Trade Area.
[3] Namibia is the latest to ratify the TFTA agreement and today the country`s High Commissioner in Zambia, Siyave Haindongo, tabled the ratification instrument to the Chair of the Tripartite Task Force Chileshe Kapwepwe, Secretary of COMESA. „As Africa moves forward to consolidate the benefits of intracontinental trade and become competitive, it is of great importance to our region, the long-standing commitment of our heads of state and government to promote regional integration as a general vision for the production of increased trade in the tripartite region,” said COMESA SG. Since 2008, there has been talk of merging COMESA member states, the East African Community (EAC) and development cooperation in southern Africa (SADC, 14 members). In 2011, the heads of state and government of the 26 African countries announced plans within these three existing regional economic communities to negotiate a tripartite free trade area of more than 600 million people and an estimated $1 trillion in trade. In June 2011, the Johannesburg governments adopted the negotiating principles, the terms of the negotiations and a roadmap for negotiating such an agreement at the 2nd Comesa-EAC-Sadc Summit. The first round of negotiations took place in Nairobi in December 2011 and the „tripartite free trade area” or #TFTA was finally signed in June 2015. It must now be ratified by the parliaments of the various Member States so that it can enter into force. This approach is based on the complementarity between trade liberalization, competitive industrial production and infrastructure development. The tripartite vision is to improve the economic and social well-being of the citizens of the COMESA-EAC-SADC region by encouraging regional economic growth by creating an environment to support regional trade.
