What It Is
COMESA (the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) was established by treaty in 1994, succeeding the 1981 Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern African States (PTA). Its 21 members stretch from Tunisia and Libya in North Africa to Eswatini and Madagascar in the south, making it the largest African regional economic community by membership.
COMESA's geographic range extends across a vast and heterogeneous portion of Africa — from Arab North African states to the Indian Ocean island nations to landlocked Southern African states.
Trade Integration
The COMESA Free Trade Area began in 2000; the Customs Union was launched in 2009 but with uneven implementation. The two trade arrangements are the institutional core of COMESA's economic integration:
- Free Trade Area: -free trade among participating members for goods originating within the region.
- Customs Union: common external tariff for goods entering the COMESA area from non-members.
Implementation has been uneven. Many member states have not implemented the customs union commitments; tariff exceptions are common; non-tariff barriers persist; rules-of-origin requirements add complexity. The gap between the formal commitments and actual implementation is substantial.
The Tripartite Framework
COMESA is one of the three African 'tripartite' blocs (with the EAC — East African Community — and SADC — Southern African Development Community) negotiating the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA), which fed into the broader AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area).
The tripartite was an important precursor to AfCFTA — demonstrating that multi- African trade integration was possible and providing the institutional groundwork for continental-level negotiation.
Overlapping Membership
Many states have overlapping membership in multiple RECs (Regional Economic Communities), creating implementation complexity. A single African state may belong to:
- COMESA.
- EAC.
- SADC.
- IGAD.
- And/or others.
Each REC has its own trade-integration commitments, rules-of-origin requirements, customs procedures, and dispute-resolution mechanisms. States that belong to multiple RECs face overlapping and sometimes conflicting obligations.
The AfCFTA was partly intended to resolve this complexity by creating a continental-level framework, though the AfCFTA's implementation interaction with existing RECs continues to be worked out.
Specialized Institutions
COMESA hosts specialized institutions including:
- The COMESA Court of Justice in Khartoum: providing dispute resolution for COMESA treaty matters.
- The COMESA Competition Commission in Lilongwe: handling competition policy across the bloc.
- The Trade and Development Bank (formerly PTA Bank) in Bujumbura: providing development financing for trade and investment.
- The COMESA Clearing House: facilitating payments and trade settlement among members.
- Various sector-specific institutions on agriculture, infrastructure, energy.
Headquarters
COMESA's main headquarters: Lusaka, Zambia. The Lusaka headquarters hosts the COMESA and main administrative functions.
Why It Matters
COMESA matters because it is one of the largest African REC frameworks and provides institutional infrastructure for trade integration across a vast and diverse region. The bloc's strengths and limits both illuminate the broader challenges of African regional integration:
- Diverse membership: enabling broad participation but limiting deep integration.
- Institutional infrastructure: providing the institutions needed for integration even when political will is uneven.
- Tripartite/AfCFTA contribution: providing the building blocks for continental integration.
Common Misconceptions
COMESA is sometimes confused with other African RECs. It is one of eight AU-recognized RECs and has distinct (though overlapping) membership and from the others.
Another misconception is that COMESA membership is mutually exclusive with other REC membership. Most COMESA members belong to additional RECs.
Real-World Examples
The COMESA Competition Commission's case work in recent years has addressed cross-border mergers and competition cases that no individual member could effectively handle alone. The Tripartite Free Trade Area negotiations from 2008-2015 produced the institutional foundation that the AfCFTA built upon. The AfCFTA's progressive implementation since 2021 has reshaped COMESA's role in African trade integration.
Example
COMESA accounts for about 60% of intra-African trade despite its uneven implementation — illustrating both the bloc's significance and the broader challenge of African economic integration.