By JUDITH NAMUTOWE-
TRADE between the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the rest of the world grew from US$240 billion in 2011 to US$262 billion in 2012.
According to a COMESA annual report, total exports rose from US$96 billion by the end of 2011, to US$107 billion in 2012.
The report indicated that imports also registered growth, from US$144 billion in 2011 to US$154 billion in 2012.
The growth in both total exports and imports was however lower than the corresponding growth for both flows in the previous year of 26 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.
The report said there was a significant decline in the levels of growth registered by a number of member countries, specifically Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sudan, and Uganda all registered a decline in their growth levels as evidenced by the declining total exports.
“The worst affected member country was Sudan, which is currently undergoing major changes with the formation of the new South Sudan and the loss of oil revenue,” reads the report.
Overall, however, there was regional growth in the exports of COMESA.
The report said countries that greatly contributed to the overall 11per cent  total exports growth in the region were Comoros, Libya and Burundi with growth rates of 86 per cent, 108 per cent , 24 per cent.
On the import side, the report said eight member states which included Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eritrea, Madagascar, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland and Zimbabwe recorded negative growth in the levels of their global imports in 2012 over the 2011 levels.
It said Seychelles experienced the greatest fall of import levels, that is, 38 per cent while Djibouti saw the greatest leap of imports over the 2011/2012 period, as the country registered 36 per cent as compared to 98 per cent the year before.
In regard to the major export markets for COMESA products, the European Union (EU) was still ranked number one, with exports worth US$33 billion destined to the EU market in 2012, up from US$31 billion
exports recorded by the end of 2011.
The exports to the EU were still primarily petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals from Libya.
EU was followed by China as a major export market for COMESA products with exports from COMESA worth over US$14 billion in 2012, a slight 2 per cent gain over the previous year’s levels of US$13.8 billion recorded as at end of 2011.
The exports were mainly petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals from Sudan and Libya, and Copper and Cobalt from DRC and Zambia
On the import side still, the EU was ranked number one as major source of imports into the COMESA region.
Imports from the EU, however, remained at levels of US$37 billion in 2011, registering a slight growth of 1 per cent over levels in 2010.
Ranked after the EU was China, South Africa, the United States of America (USA), South Africa and the COMESA region in that intra-COMESA trade grew by almost nine per cent in 2012 over 2011 levels, from US$18.4 billion to US$19.3 billion.
However, the nine per cent growth in 2012 was meager as opposed to the 36 per cent registered growth in 2010.
The nine per cent growth in intra-COMESA trade for 2011 could be attributed in part to registered growths in intra-trade among countries like Kenya, Zambia, Burundi, Mauritius and Uganda.