Zambia has been challenged to take advantage of the SADC Free Trade Area, FTA, which will be launched in South Africa tomorrow, to increase trade with its eight neighbours as well as other countries in the region.
EU head of delegation to Zambia Derrick Fee says Zambia should use the FTA to boost its growing economy.
In an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka today, Dr Fee commended SADC member states for the progress in establishing the Free Trade Area in the region.
He said the launch of the SADC FTA is a significant step towards improving trade and economic growth among Southern African countries.
Dr Fee said the EU hopes a bigger FTA will be established for East and Southern African countries during the tripartite meeting of SADC, the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Eastern African Community to be held in Uganda in October this year.
The SADC FTA will be launched tomorrow on the last day of the SADC heads of state government summit which opened in the South Africa’s commercial capital Johannesburg today.
It is aimed at eliminating tariffs and non tariff barriers on substantially all trade among SADC member countries.
The FTA is a key milestone towards achieving the SADC goal of pursuing a common regional integration agenda premised on political, economic and trade interests.
It is expected to create a regional market worth US$360 billion with a total population of 170 million and includes economies growing by up to 7 per cent.
ZANIS/BK/BMK/ENDS
Good news. Zambia should take advantage of the FTA.
All those producers and manufacturers must be happy with this news. But we must work on infrastructure and the quality of our goods.
But this is good news.
will someone please explain what this means in lay man’s terms? Advantages and how it works
Zambia honestly speaking is not ready for the FTA. look at our Zambia Bureau of Standard and how much counterfeits Zambia has received. Hope these things are not harmful or else three quarters of us will kick the backet with the use of Gonga Chinese goods. we need to step up our Pharmceutical Regualtion and the Zambia Bureau of Standards.
#3 habs
I will have to disagree. This is a Free Trade Area amongst SADC states and not oversees states. Zambia should embrace FTA.
The economic advantages the FTA will bring are amazing.
This arrangement will certainly kill Zambia.Our manaufacturing base is too weak and we should have worked on it first.Zambians are already being exploited,imported groceries are too expensive as compared to other countries in the region.If we cant come up with our own companies then aleast lets encourage the foreign firms to set up bases in zambia
No serious person can setup a manufacturing unit in Zambia it is just too expensive. The energy, transport and communication costs are some of the highest in the world. Look at the cost of petrol for exampple:
USA $5 per gallon
UK $7per gallon
South Africa $5.5 per gallon
Botswana $5.5 per gallon
Zambia $10 per gallon.
#6. Mbulawa
Just asking but where did you get those figures???
Zambia is priveldged to have Angola as its neighbour.Zambia needs Angola for oil and access to the Atlantic,we should start moving away from the Tanzama pipeline and try to come up with (Zambia Angola)ZA pipeline.This will save us from the transporttion,storage and insurance costs but offcourse the main challedge will be how the savings will be used.Many Angolans lived in zambia n its time to tranform our political relations into econonic relations
Zambia is priveldged to have Angola as its neighbour.Zambia needs Angola for oil and access to the Atlantic,we should start moving away from the Tanzama pipeline and try to come up with (Zambia Angola)ZA pipeline.This will save us from the transporttion,storage and insurance costs but offcourse the main challedge will be how the savings will be used.Many Angolans lived in zambia n its time to tranform our political relations into econonic relations
#9. choma1
Indeni cannot process the oil in Angola just as yet. They are still looking into investing in a cracker which will be able to process oil from Angola.
Angolan oil has got too many impurities and so they are looking into getting a cracker for indeni which will enable it to process the oil from Angola.
Zambia is also constructing a rail road from Zambia to Angola and they where also working on a dry port (something like that) in Walvis Bay, Namibia that will connect it to the Atlantic.
Those are good thoughts but I think they have already been thought of.
Free-Market-Capitalist The cracker should not be a problem,indeni is always messing up,its time to have 2 or more oil refineries,this world has no room for monopoly
. Free-Market-Capitalist thanx for ur information,very useful.
i was actually not thinking but trying to see how fast we can go practical
7. Free-Market-Capitalist with only 20 000 kwacha i could only afford 2.1 liters of petrol in monze
#11. choma1
I have to agree with you. We have too many monopolies in Zambia.
I think we should let BP, Caltex and other companies start there own refineries and we must give loans to Zambians to start refineries like (off the top of my head) Zampetrol, Zamoil, etc. [note: those companies dont exist].
This way, it would be possible to have low oil prices. Right now Indeni is making lots and lots of money with these high fuel prices, I don’t think the stakeholders of Indeni want to bring the price down. Let me stop with my conspiracy theories.
May somebody enlighten me on the individual/small scale importers.how will they stand to benefit from this FTA.lets say can I buy a vehicle from SA and be exempted from Taxes?Just what is this FTA.
(Different careers mudala you know,Know clue about economics).
FTA will ebenfit more of the manufacturers and farmers.Say our grandmother grows coffee and she finds a buyer in Namibia, it the buyer will not need to apply for 16 licenses, just to buy the coffee beans.And for the manufacturers will have asy access to other markets say Moz,Malawi, etc.The point is we have to work hard to improve our manufacturing industry and farming.Becoz we don’t we will do more imports than exports then countries like SA , who have a strong manufacturing sector benefit at the expense of smaller economies.Lets wait for blueprint for the finer details on tax,duty, etc #16.
FTA will benefit Safrica more than other countries in the region.Zambia has a very shallow manufacturing base and most Zambians shun their home made products for imported ones even when the quality may be superior to the imported product
This is THE NEW WORLD ORDER.
#19 that world order stuff is makin me sick…though it sounds possible yes i agree wit u:
1.World Country
1.Currency etc…but its not real jst yet 4 now can we jst concentrate on how to improve our infastructure Zambia has got to move and wake up…ECONOMICALLY!!
:d/:d/:o:-\”