Government says it is not in a hurry to withdraw its membership from either the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) regional groupings.
Commerce Trade and Industry Minister, Felix Mutati, said the issue of dual membership is not a problem to Zambia only, but that more than 12 other African Countries are facing the same challenge.
Mr. Mutati said this at a press briefing in Lusaka today.
He noted that there is need for different regional groupings to come together and identify common goals and differences and amalgamate.
Mr. Mutati said the different regional groupings need to harmonize their differences and unite into one large economic block.
It is not that govt is not in a hurry, we are just not prepared and dont know the implications of leaving either of the blocks simple!
Zambia is doing better in SADC and COMESA.forget about the United Staes of Africa.we are a brain child of these organisations.
On the Other hand,
I contend that its imperative for zambai to begin to quantitate the economic benefit of association of either organisations. it does not take a pundit to know that belonging to two organisations that almost save the same purpose is cost.
We need to begin thinking about what is in it for Zambia all the times!
Zambia First!
Yea! what’s in it for Zambia? It’s great that we are doing well in both organisations but which one do we benefit from more?
Also we need to the of the long term effects of not belonging to either of the organisation. The thing is they all share a common goal, which is making Africa develop. We have all we need in terms of raw materials, all we need is to make use of them and making usre the coutry benefits “NOT” the people in charge ” politicians”
Think
we are in southern africa and comesa hq is in lusaka,so what can we do? It is not possible to leave any of the two groupings.However steps should be taken to harmonise the two. We benefit alot in sadc eg when you go to SA for studies you pay the same as the locals especially in public universities.
Minister Mutati this your challenge before you leave office.
Other than having the HQ in Lusaka there is nothing else Zambia is getting from COMESA. For some stupid reason the Kenyans seem to be calling the shorts in this organisation. Take the sugar sector for example. The Kenyans have firewalled their sugar market by insisting on quotas. They argue that they are a high cost producer and they cannot compete with low cost sugar producers like Zambia, Swaziland and Malawi. This stupid arrangement has been going on for over a decade. By the way Kenya imports most of its sugar from Thailand which they repack and dumb in the comesa market. Comesa is phony you should wake up and smell the coffee!
It’s the paralysis that the Zambian government inhibits every time they have to make a decision that stinks to the heavens above. We as Zambian are Southern Africans and the only thing we have in common with those central and east African Nubians is the colour of our skin. We as a nation benefit a lot from SADC as #6 has corrently pointed out. COMESA can piss off, relocate to Mogadishu, Nairobi or Khartoum. After all, its these COMESA members who voted for that Chinese Jean Ping and not Inonge for the AU post, they should leave our country now.
Corrections on #6:
short=shot
dumb=dump
Yayi nabona kuti mwabana nyengo zino mulinavingelu. Enya comesa is less important to Zed than SADC. But for now, there is nothing pushing us to quit comesa soon! There are no punitive measures for dual membership. If it promotes our export of fertilizer and sugar to the great lakes, so be it up until when we are required to quit one of them, lets continue to benefit in some way by belonging to both. After all there is SACU withing SADC, no one is calling for its abolition. What we should guard against is product that are unfairly competing with our locally produced items like sugar from Thailand in the name of Kenya. Aba bathu bakuboneka nga kuti mbazeleza, ndicho chifukwa bayamba kukomana!
Zozo you speak sense. Lets stop losing sleep over academic problems. For now we stick to COMESA and SADC and reap from both. When COMESA tells us what the punishment is for being in SADC we shall weigh those against SADC’s punitive measures, check from where we get more financial benefit then make the decision. Knowing Africa this will happen in the year 2108
Thank you brother Neuter, by 2108 when they work up, the world will be in another gear! Maybe EU will have integrated with USA to counter China and the Asian Tigers economic prowes, that is the time I guess SADC would be pondering what to name the common currency and another peace conference for DRC rebels would still be in the process, Uganda will be recovering from a genocide while the failed referrendum in Sudan will have caused another civil war! The Bill Gates foundation run by his son will be holding a Bill Gates Africa Conference where all African heads of state will be receiving pledges af assistance! Easy to predict because of our past! Timwe makola phele lelo nchinkhondi, taonga!
The ignorance of people who post on this blog is breathtaking. It is a World Trade Organisation ruling that a country should only belong to one trading market. You’ve been given until 2010 to make your decision otherwise you will lose your rights under the WTO.