COMESA Secretary General Mr Sindiso Ngwenya has explained that the launch of the COMESA Customs Union (CU) did no require signatures from Member States since the CU is already enshrined in the Treaty. What was needed therefore, were the Legal Instruments which were adopted.

“The accompanying measures that the countries at the national level have to take to implement the CU, among others things would include the gazeting of the Council Regulations on the CU and Custom Management Act. In addition, countries would be expected to gazette the Common External Tariff (CET) structure and their schedules of commitments” Mr Ngwenya told a press conference early this week at the COMESA Secretariat in Lusaka, Zambia, following the just ended Summit and Launch of Customs Union that took place in Victoria falls Zimbabwe on 7th and 8th June 2009.

Mr Ngwenya said that the Customs Union will be “a wealth-creating machine”. He added that it will create a level playing field amoung producers due to that their inputs such as capital goods, raw materials and intermediate products will be subjected to a uniform tariffs as opposed to the current situation where each country has its own external tariff.

Mr Ngwenya challenged the business community to unlock the potentials that will be provided by the Customs Union.

Regarding the proposed single Free Trade Area between COMESA, EAC and SADC as per the decision of the 1st Tripartite Summit that took place in Kampala, Uganda in October last year, Mr Ngwenya said that the study on the single FTA for the three Regional Communities is expected to be completed by July this year, and will be presented, for a review, to a joint Council of Ministers scheduled by October 2009, adding that such an FTA should be in place by 2012.