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Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa because it presents more benefits than harm, a senior Government official has said. South Africa is this weekend expected to host the EAC-Sadc -Comesa summit to be attended by Heads of State and Government.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Regional Integration and International Co-operation Mr Tedious Chifamba said industry was concerned that if the country adopts the free trade area, it would affect local production.
He said industry would gain from Zimbabwe’s involvement in the free trade area.
Mr Chifamba said the industry’s fears were unfounded as they chose to blinker themselves on some areas while ignoring where they will benefit.
“Industry has been arguing that we shouldn’t get into the free trade area because they feel they are not ready.
“They are concerned that if we open our borders then local production would be affected because of competition.
“The subject is a tripartite negotiation where we have tariff liberalisation, infrastructure development and industrial development, but their focus is only on tariff liberalisation.
“They are not looking at infrastructure development, an area which we urgently need as a country. They are not looking at industrial development as well, yet these are the things that we can benefit as a country.
“Industry should actually be excited that we are creating a good environment for them to operate and they have to consider creating value addition,” Mr Chifamba said.
He said the summit in South Africa was just the launch of negotiations as consultations were already underway.
“The summit in South Africa is just the launch of negotiations which are likely to take about three to five years.
“All the concerns will be looked at during the negotiation processes,” he said. The overall objective of the tripartite forum is to create one economic bloc out of the three – the EAC, Sadc and Comesa.
The facility is intended to deepen economic integration for Africa’s development, working towards the creation of a comprehensive Tripartite Free Trade Area (T-FTA) encompassing the whole of the Sadc, Comesa and EAC regions stretching from the Cape to Cairo. This month’s summit is scheduled to, among other things, put into force several issues, including a roadmap towards the intended economic integration.