The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, formed in 1994 to replace the Preferential Trade Area, was established as ‘an organisation of free independent sovereign states which have agreed to co-operate in developing their natural and human resources for the good of all their people’. COMESA has a wide range of objectives including the promotion of peace and security regionally, as well as the creation of a large economic and trading bloc. It has sought to achieve this through ever increasing regional integration.

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Key to COMESA is the creation of a free trade area, created in 2000, which eliminates tariffs on COMESA originating products, a customs union eliminating trade restrictions and trade promotion which has seen the harmonisation of economic policies throughout the region.

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COMESA is constituted of Burundi, the Comoros islands, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, the Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.