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COMESA and SADC will be compatible, says envoy

COMESA and SADC will be compatible, says envoy
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Tuesday June 24, 2008 [04:00]

COMESA and SADC will eventually find a degree of compatibility, Brazilian Ambassador to Zambia Josal Luiz Pellegrino has said. Commenting on the ongoing assertions that Zambia should choose between Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) or Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to avoid duplication of the roles, Ambassador Pellegrino said he did not see dual membership as a problem in southern and east African countries.

“I would say SADC and COMESA are competing for integration but in my opinion, on the contrary, in the very near future, COMESA and SADC would find a common way to enhance the integration process,” he said.
“The process of integration in Southern Africa is beautiful because both SADC and COMESA have a very interesting history, the efforts southern and east African countries have been making since 30 years are so interesting that I don’t see that the solution would be choosing between the one over the other.”

He was sure the heads of state in Africa would find a consensus in that respect.

“They have been very wise in their decisions lately and the last five years have shown a very interesting process in both SADC and COMESA and I am sure that in the near future both organisations would come to some kind of agreement to accelerate the process of integration in the region.”

Ambassador Pellegrino further explained that the East African Community (EAC) which congregated members of both COMESA and SADC was an element that could facilitate the integration of the two organisations.

Recently, there has been a debate that Zambia should choose to belong to either COMESA or SADC so that the country could only concentrate on one of the organisations.

But commerce minister Felix Mutati recently said Zambia derived greater benefit from maintaining dual membership in COMESA and SADC.

He said the way forward for Zambia and other countries in the region was to work towards harmonisation of parameters of the two regional economic communities.

Labels: COMESA, SADC

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