Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Charles Mwijage.

MARC NKWAME in Arusha

 Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Charles Mwijage.

UNITING the East African Community (EAC), the Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa is the only remedy left to curb infiltration of sub-standard and fake goods from outside the continent, a senior government official has said.

“Through the Free Trade Area (FTA) joining the various trading blocs in Africa will ensure united strength in fighting the growing waves of poor, sub-standard, counterfeit and faked products,” said the Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Charles Mwijage.

He was speaking during the 22nd General Assembly of the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) and its related ‘Made in Africa Expo’’ which has just been held at the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC).

The meeting addressed the issue of standards and how countries can combat issues of sub-standard and faked products.

The proposed FTA move is expected to knit together the four existing trading blocs on the continent which are, the East African Community (EAC), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and possibly also the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

That will create a much larger market base on the African continent to attract more investors to set up factories and industries to manufacture goods right from Africa, thus reducing the continent’s dependency on imports something which creates loopholes to counterfeits.

One of Tanzania’s heavy industry investors, Mr Satbir Hanspaul of the Hanspaul Automech, said he and other manufacturers will ensure that they assist the government in the fight against counterfeits.

“Steel products, for instance, need to be of very high quality on that many of the construction projects including large buildings, roads, bridges and other huge infrastructures are dependent on them,” stated Mr Hanspaul whose firm has been producing and outfitting safari and military vehicles for export, right from Arusha.

Meanwhile, the proposed tripartite Free Trade Area encompassing 26 Member and Partner States from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), with a combined population of 625 million people and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD 1.2 trillion, will account for half of the membership of the African Union and 58 per cent of the continent’s GDP.

The Tripartite FTA popularly known as the Grand Free Trade Area will be the largest economic bloc on the continent and the launching pad for the establishment of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) in 2017 not to mention to fulfil Mwalimu Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah’s dream of united Africa.

According to experts, the Tripartite Free Trade Area offers significant opportunities for business and investment within the Tripartite and will act as a magnet for attracting foreign direct investment into the tripartite region.