ABSTRACT
The main objective of COMESA is to create a fully integrated and internationally competitive region within which there is complete freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and persons. The main instrument for achieving this is market integration through trade development. This objective is consistent with the main motivation behind the current wave of preferential trading arrangements in many regions of the world; see, for example, Bhagwati and Panagariya (1996a, 1996b), Winters (1996), Bhagwati, Greenaway and Panagariya (1998), Fernandez and Portes (1998) and Panagariya (2000).
