The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa has said that it is ready to launch a customs union in December. The union will allow the free movement of goods within the region.

The 19-country trading bloc intends to build on benefits that 14 of the countries that have signed up the Comesa Free Trade Area, enjoy. Under the FTA, no tariffs are levied on goods from member states while each country applies its own regime of tariffs on goods imported outside the region.

Under the union, members will also have one tariff for goods coming in from outside the member states.

Comesa secretary general, Mr Erastus Mwencha, on Thursday said that creation of the union will be completed on time as it would be modelled along the East African Customs Union system.

He said Comesa is the largest trading block in Africa with a population of 400 million people.

Vice president, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, said that heads of States and governments met in Nairobi in May 2007 and agreed that December would be ideal for the launch of the union. "This commitment was further reinforced by the Council of Ministers meeting held in November 2007 in Lusaka, Zambia during which the council agreed on the completion of the preparatory work towards the launch of the customs union," he said. The VP spoke at Comesa Extraordinary Council of Ministers meeting held at Grand Regency Hotel in Nairobi, on Thursday.

Mr Mwencha said that countries, on their own, are too small to attract any meaningful investment in today's globalised economy where mass production is vital to reduce unit costs. "We need to be part of the global economy not as a matter of cosmetics but as a matter of survival," he said.

The council is expected to appoint an interim Comesa secretary general to replace Mr Mwencha whose terms ends next month.