Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Marché commun de l'Afrique orientale et australe Mercado Comum da África Oriental e Austral
Anthem: People of Africa[1]
Map of membership in the COMESA   Current members   Former members
Seat of Secretariat		Lusaka, Zambia
Official languages		English, French and Portuguese
Type		Trade bloc
Membership		20 member states
Leaders
-	Secretary General	Sindiso Ngwenya
Establishment
-	Signed	5 November 1993
-	Ratified	8 December 1994
Website http://www.comesa.int/

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.

In 2008, COMESA agreed to an expanded free-trade zone including members of two other African trade blocs, the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).

Membership

Current members:

•  Burundi (21 Dec 1981)
•  Comoros (21 Dec 1981)
•  Democratic Republic of the Congo (21 Dec 1981)
•  Djibouti (21 Dec 1981)
•  Egypt (6 Jan 1999)
•  Eritrea (1994)
•  Ethiopia (21 Dec 1981)
•  Kenya (21 Dec 1981)
•  Libya (3 June 2005) (at the 10th Summit of COMESA)
•  Madagascar (21 Dec 1981)
•  Malawi (21 Dec 1981)
•  Mauritius (21 Dec 1981)
•  Rwanda (21 Dec 1981)
•  Seychelles (2001)
•  South Sudan (2011) ^[2]
•  Sudan (21 Dec 1981)
•  Swaziland (21 Dec 1981)
•  Uganda (21 Dec 1981)
•  Zambia (21 Dec 1981)
•  Zimbabwe (21 Dec 1981)

Former members:

•  Lesotho (quit in 1997)
•  Mozambique (quit in 1997)
•  Tanzania (quit on September 2, 2000)
•  Namibia (quit on May 2, 2004)
•  Angola (Suspended itself in 2007) ^[3][4]

Organs of the Common Market

The following organs have decision-making power according to the treaties

• The COMESA Authority, composes of Heads of States or Government.
• The COMESA Council of Ministers
• The COMESA Court of Justice
• The Committee of Governors of Central Banks

The following lower policy organs make recommendations to the above:

• The Inter-governmental Committee
• The Twelve Technical Committees
• The Consultative Committee of the Business Community and other Interest Groups
• The COMESA Secretariat.

Other institutions created to promote development are:

• The PTA Bank (Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank) in Nairobi, Kenya
• The COMESA Clearing House in Harare, Zimbabwe
• The COMESA Association of Commercial Banks in Harare, Zimbabwe
• The COMESA Leather Institute in Ethiopia
• The COMESA Re-Insurance Company (ZEP-RE)in Nairobi, Kenya
• The Regional Investment Agency in Cairo, Egypt

Comparison with other regional blocs

African Economic Community
Pillars regional blocs (REC)1	Area (km²)	Population	GDP (PPP) ($US)		Member states
			in millions	per capita
AEC	29,910,442	853,520,010	2,053,706	2,406	54
ECOWAS	5,112,903	251,646,263	342,519	1,361	15
ECCAS	6,667,421	121,245,958	175,928	1,451	11
SADC	9,882,959	233,944,179	737,335	3,152	15
EAC	1,817,945	124,858,568	104,239	1,065	5
COMESA	12,873,957	406,102,471	735,599	1,811	20
IGAD	5,233,604	187,969,775	225,049	1,197	7
Other African blocs	Area (km²)	Population	GDP (PPP) ($US)		Member states
			in millions	per capita
CEMAC 2	3,020,142	34,970,529	85,136	2,435	6
SACU 2	2,693,418	51,055,878	541,433	10,605	5
UEMOA 2	3,505,375	80,865,222	101,640	1,257	8
UMA 3	5,782,140	84,185,073	491,276	5,836	5
GAFTA 4	5,876,960	166,259,603	635,450	3,822	5
1 The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) is a signatory to the AEC, but not participating in any bloc yet 2 Economic bloc inside a pillar REC 3 Proposed for pillar REC, but objecting participation 4 Non-African members of GAFTA are excluded from figures   smallest value among the blocs compared   largest value among the blocs compared During 2004. Source: CIA World Factbook 2005, IMF WEO Database This box: view · edit] See also African Union This article is part of the series: Institutions Casablanca Group Union of African States Organisation of African Unity African Economic Community African Unification Front Executive Assembly Chairperson Commission Chairperson Conference and Events Peace & Sec. Pol. Affairs Infra. & Energy Soc. Affairs HR, Sci., & Tech. Trade and Industry Rural Econ. & Agri. Economic Legal Counsel Executive Council Rep. Committee Legislature Pan-African Parliament President Bureau Secretariat List of members Permanent Committees Rural Econ., Agri., Resources, Eviron. Monetary & Financial Trade, Customs, & Immigration Cooperation, IR, & Conflict Transport, Industry, Communications,   Energy, Science, & Tech. Health, Labour, & Social Educ., Culture, Tourism, & HR Gender, Family, Youth, Disabilities Justice & Rights Rules, Privileges, & Discipline Judiciary Sirte Declaration Constitutive Act of the AU Law Charter on Rights Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights Court of Justice Court on Human and Peoples' Rights List of judges Advisory bodies Peace and Security Council Economic, Social, and Cultural Council Specialised Technical Committees Rural Econ., Agri. Monetary & Financial Trade, Customs, and Immigration Industry, Sci. & Tech., Energy... Transport, Comm., Tourism Health, Labor, Social Edu., Culture, & Human Resources Financial bodies AEC Pillars (Abuja Treaty) CEN-SAD COMESA EAC ECCAS/CEEAC CEMAC ECOWAS UEMOA WAMZ IGAD SADC SACU AMU/UMA African Central Bank African Monetary Fund African Investment Bank New Partnership for Africa's Development African Peer Review Mechanism Decentralised bodies Agencies of the AU Related topics Elections Enlargement Foreign relations Other countries · Atlas Politics portal view · talk · edit Trade bloc East African Community (EAC) Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) Southern African Development Community (SADC) Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA) Yellow card system - motor insurance scheme of COMESA External links COMESA web site Information on COMESA history Agreement establishing COMESA References ^ "Comesaweb – Comesa anthem". Comesa.int. http://about.comesa.int/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16&Itemid=34. Retrieved 2 September 2011.  ^ All Africa Global Media. "COMESA Welcomes New Member". MENAFA.com. http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.asp?storyid={62d78860-a792-475c-bff9-0722d5d61d3e}. Retrieved 31 October 2011.  ^ "SADC, COMESA and the EAC: Conflicting regional and trade agendas". October 2008. http://www.igd.org.za/publications/occasional-papers/item/download/32. Retrieved 07 May 2011.  ^ "African integration is great but has its hurdles". 26th May 2010. http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/20/720784. Retrieved 07 May 2011.  Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат? Nanalan' Q-Zar Look at other dictionaries: Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa — Staaten der COMESA Der Gemeinsame Markt für das Östliche und Südliche Afrika (englisch:Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) kurz COMESA ist eine regionale Organisation mit Sitz im sambischen Lusaka. Ziel ist die Schaffung eines… …   Deutsch Wikipedia Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa — Marché commun de l Afrique orientale et australe Le Marché commun de l Afrique orientale et australe aussi connu sous son acronyme anglais COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa), est une organisation internationale à vocation… …   Wikipédia en Français Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa — ⇡ COMESA …   Lexikon der Economics Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern Africa —   [prefə renʃl treɪd eərɪə fɔː iːstən ənd sʌȓən æfrɪkə, englisch], Abkürzung PTA, Präferẹnzhandelszone für das östliche und südliche Afrika, die durch das am 21. 12. 1981 in Lusaka (Sambia) unterzeichnete, am 1. 1. 1983 in Kraft getretene… …   Universal-Lexikon Southern Africa — Introduction       southernmost region of the African continent, comprising the countries of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The island nation of Madagascar is excluded… …   Universalium Southern African Development Community — Infobox Geopolitical organization name = Southern African Development Community (SADC) linking name = the Southern African Development Community symbol type = Logo image symbol = Sadc logo.gif map width = 300px map caption = SADC only (yellow)… …   Wikipedia Southern African Customs Union — HistorySACU is the oldest customs union in the world. [ [http://www.wto.org/English/tratop e/tpr e/tp213 e.htm WTO Trade Policy Review: Southern African Customs Union 2003] ] It was established in 1910 as a Customs Union Agreement between the… …   Wikipedia South Africa — This article is about the modern country. For other uses, see South Africa (disambiguation). Republic of South Africa …   Wikipedia Cross-national cooperation and agreements — Integration is a political and economic agreement among countries that gives preference to member countries to the agreement [1]. General integration can be achieved in three different approachable ways: through the World Trade Organization (WTO) …   Wikipedia East Africa — legend|#00f000|Geographic East Africa, including the UN subregion and East African CommunityEast Africa is the easternmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Eastern (not East) Africa for the collection of… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2025 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”