From: "Rex Brown" <rbrown@ecs.co.sz>
To: "Swazinews" <swazinews@list.iafrica.sz>
Subject: SWAZINEWS: Court Set up to Boost Economic Cooperation in Africa
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 00:40:27 +0200
Message-ID: <003e01be4fc6$31f4d380$cf5016c4@rex>
Reply-To: rbrown@ecs.co.sz
Sender: owner-swazi-net@list.pitt.edu

Court Set up to Boost Economic Cooperation in Africa

Xinhua, 3 February 1999

DAR ES SALAAM (Feb. 3) XINHUA - The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has set up a special court to enhance the economic development strategy through market integration.

Onyango Matata, a senior COMESA secretariat official, was quoted by local newspapers Wednesday as saying that the COMESA Court of Justice, launched last September, is tasked with arbitration of parties contravening agreements geared at achieving the set goals.

He told a one-day seminar here that the court based in Lusaka is also entrusted to pronounce sanctions on violators of the agreements planned to achieve monetary union by the year 2025.

Other measures in force include introduction of COMESA Carrier Licence, which covers all transporting firms engaged in intra-COMESA business.

Cargo vehicles for transit cargo are provided with special number plates so that they can get priority of clearance at entry points, Matata said.

COMESA treaty was signed in Kampala, Uganda in 1993 while launching was effected in Lilongwe, Malawi in December 1994.

The institution aims at achieving free trade area by the year 2000, common external tariffs by 2004 and monetary union by 2025.

COMESA members are Angola, Burundi, Comoros, DRC, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia, South Africa and Mozambique