COMESA cancels head of state summit

LUSAKA, Nov.13 (Chinese media) -- Africa's largest trading bloc announced Thursday

that it has postponed its summit of presidents of member countries which was

supposed to have been held in Zimbabwe next month.

The 19-member Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) said

in a statement that the summit will be held during the first half of next year.

The postponement of the summit takes into account the need to begin the

process of implementing the decisions of the Summit of three trading blocs held

in Uganda last month regarding the harmonization of Free Trade Areas (FTA) and

common external tariffs.

The three trading blocs, the COMESA, Eastern African Community (EAC) and

the Southern African Development Community (SADC) agreed to create one free

trading zone.

The leaders of the three trading blocs agreed to create a free trade zone

of 26 countries with a GDP of an estimated 624 U.S. dollars. It is hoped the

deal will ease access to markets within the region and end problems arising from

the fact that several countries belong to multiple groups

"Of immediate priority is the harmonization of the common external tariffs

of COMESA and the EAC," the statement says.

"It is for this against this background that it has been deemed prudent to

postpone the COMESA Summit to a future date during the first six months of 2009

to enable the harmonization process and consultations to be completed," the

statement adds.