COMESA Secretariat

The history of COMESA began in December 1994 when it was formed to replace the former Preferential Trade Area (PTA) which had existed from the earlier days of 1981. COMESA (as defined by its Treaty) was established as an organisation of free independent sovereign states which have agreed to co-operate in developing their natural and human resources for the good of all their people and as such it has a wide-ranging series of objectives which necessarily include in its priorities the promotion of peace and security in the region. However, due to COMESAs economic history and background its main focus is on the formation of a large economic and trading unit that is capable of overcoming some of the barriers that are faced by individual states.. COMESAs current strategy can thus be summed up in the phrase economic prosperity through regional integration. With its 19 (now 21 since 18 July 2018) Member States, population of over 540 million and global trade in goods worth US$ 235 billion...