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The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies will today leave for Kampala, Uganda to attend the Tripartite Committee of Sectoral Ministers meeting to be held tomorrow.

The meeting will give the Ministers from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC), and Southern African Development Community (SADC) an opportunity to get an update on the progress achieved in the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) negotiations.

The Tripartite consists of 26 Member States of the African Union. The TFTA marks an important step in promoting regional integration in Africa and is a building block for the Continental Free Trade Area. The meeting is expected to consider the remaining Annexes thus marking the conclusion of the legal framework for Trade in goods.

This will facilitate signature of the agreement by all Member States. Negotiations on tariffs, rules of origin and Phase II will continue as part of the built-in agenda. Minister Davies stated that "Considerable progress has been achieved on tariff negotiations between SACU and the EAC and Egypt.  According to Minister Davies, it is expected that SACU and the EAC will conclude the tariff negotiations in the near future.

Issued by Department of Trade and Industry