The Basic Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals & Cosmetics Export Promotion Council (Chemexcil) is planning to organize a meeting with the representatives of COMESA (Common Market for Eastern & Southern Africa) in April 2003. The meets would try to explore the export chances of Indian drugs and pharmaceuticals sector in the 21 member countries of COMESA.

COMESA is a forum consisting of Angola, Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The COMESA Treaty envisions a fully integrated, internationally competitive regional economic community; a community within which goods services, capital and labour are free to move across national borders.

Trade between India and COMESA countries has been growing in a very slow rate. For the period 1998-99 total trade between two region recorded US $ 1058.05 million which increased to US $ 1075.87 million in 1999-2000. Trade for the period April - December 2000 improved and recorded US $ 1083.12 million. Drugs and Pharmaceuticals and Hospital equipment continues to be one of the major export attractions for COMESA from India. The other potential sectors for business cooperation include health care products and SME technologies.

The advantage the country's exporters are to have through COMESA is that the forum has adopted a single COMESA Customs Document to replace the previous multiplicity of documents (upto 32 in some countries) and to also serve for clearance of customs, warehousing, re-export and transit purposes.