For want of warm bodies, a trading kingdom is being lost
Each time an on-the-spot verification is needed, one senior staff member must travel, leaving Comesa's Directorate of Trade and Customs severely short-handed. If two verifications are needed at once, one dispute must wait – forcing businesses to have a greater inclination to look for non-Comesa goods thereafter. ILLUSTRATION | JOHN NGARI | NMG
Though discussions of African trade during 2018 were dominated by the quest to establish a Continental Free Trade Area, its fruits are unlikely to be realised any time soon.
Even if ratified in 2019, its outcomes will take many years to unfold because substantive discussions on rules of origin and tariff lines have yet to happen.
