Intra-Comesa trade up, now at $21 billion

Intra-regional trade in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) has steadily risen from $3 billion to $20.9 billion since the establishment of a Free Trade Area (FTA) in 2000.

This, however, excludes the informal trade across the borders that currently goes largely unrecorded but which has been estimated at over 30 per cent of formal trade.