Stakeholders from COMESA countries have offered a raft of recommendations to be adopted to get the block’s economy back on track following restrictions on movement of goods to contain Covid 19 spread that have affected the trade.
The recommendations followed a virtual meeting this week organised by COMESA Business Council that brought together both public and private sector players drawn from the member states to take the stock of implementation of the COMESA Regional Guidelines for the movement of essential goods and supplies across the region during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The participants observed that whilst the measures put in place were important, facilitating the movement of essential goods and services remains a priority for livelihoods, industry and economic sustainability for COMESA and Africa at large.
It is for this reason that COMESA developed guidelines in May this year, which the participants said have since brought strong collaboration between the private and government agencies in addressing the pandemic.
These guidelines were developed on 4 major considerations namely; the need to save lives; the need to strengthen coordination and collective approach by Member States specifically in facilitating the movement of goods and services; the need to safeguard existing trade agreements and to avoid erosion of gains that have been made as far as liberalization of trade and investment in the COMESA region and the need to support local production and supply of products especially essential goods following the shortfall in supply experienced.
Measures put in place to mitigate the challenges experienced by business due to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to reduction in the levels of output, household spending, investment and international trade. Recent border delays and queues as a result of border restrictions and limitations on the movement of cross border cargo, not only disrupted supply chains but also increased COVID-19 confirmed cases along the trade corridors.
This will reduce intra-regional trade, which currently stands at US$ US$ 8 billion. According to the UN, COVID-19 could cost up to 1.4% points of Africa’s GDP growth. The Brookings Institute projects recently observed that Africa will record a loss of 2.1% points or more in Gross Domestic Product if the novel coronavirus takes hold. Other estimates predict that Africa’s economies could record a loss of between $90 billion and $200 billion this year (2020). According to a recent publication by the African Union, the pandemic could cause up to 20 million job losses.
The meeting recommended the establishment of a Beverages Association to represent the industry’s position in engagements with the public sector and other relevant associations.
Regional Business Associations should strengthen their collaborations for enhanced regional trade facilitation through COMESA Business Council, SADC Business Council, and East African Business Council. The participants also recommended increased private sector investment for industrial development and infrastructure to ensure increased regional trade.
Development of a public-private sector platform that fosters dialogue, collaboration and knowledge sharing, towards the evaluation and enhancement of the guideline’s implementation and efficiency was also considered vital.
It was also recommended that COMESA should accelerate and broaden support mechanisms at national and regional level to support Small and Medium Enterprises through stimulus packages, access to markets, and other measures. SME have been seriously affected by vagaries of the Covid 19.
There is a need for the development and implementation of more digital trade solutions to cover e-trade, e-legislation and e-logistics.
