Unity critical for Comesa in bid to recover post-coronavirus

The gains made by countries in the eastern and southern Africa, through free trade are under threat. In the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), with 21 countries, internal trade has grown steadily from $1.5 billion (Sh150 billion) to over $10.3 billion (Sh103 billion) since the regional bloc’s free trade area (FTA) was launched in 2000. These gains will be eroded, especially if states do not stand together and collectively respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The International Monetary Fund (2020), projects that the global economy will contract by three per cent in 2020, much worse than during the global financial crisis, and grow by 5.8 per cent in 2021, if the pandemic fades in the second half of 2020 and containment measures are uplifted.