AFRICAN STATES AGREE TO REGIONAL TARIFF CUTS Fifteen countries in Eastern and Southern Africa have agreed to cut tariffs on regional trade by 10 pct every two years up to 1996. A statement by the Preferential Trade Area (PTA), which seeks to create a common market stretching from Ethiopia in the north to Lesotho in the south, said the governments would make the first tariff cut next year. In 1996 they would assess the impact of the tariff reductions and work out a new timetable for the complete elimination of all barriers to trade by the year 2000. The PTA, set up in 1982, groups Burnudi, the Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Somalia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. PTA sources said the agreement averted a split between members wanting more progress towards free trade and weaker states concerned about the effects on customs revenue. The reductions cover only a common list of 300 or so widely traded commodities and goods but PTA sources said the organisation planned to expand the list to include 425 items.