Dar es Salaam — The refusal by Tanzania to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) – hailed as bold and nationalistic at home but raising more questions than answers among regional partners – has put the country back in the spotlight.

It seems for the country’s older East African Community (EAC) siblings – Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, mostly – the decision to snub trade agreements with the European Union is somewhat otherworldly, not normal. Apparently, the EAC brothers struggle to see how Tanzania could continue to flirt with something they consider so ‘important’ to any future deals the region will have with the outside world.

Within the six-member regional bloc, Tanzania has for years now had a tendency to split opinion on matters that range from political to economic integration. The dust it has raised in the bloc over the past few weeks after it refused to sign EPAs is not new.

On many other issues, the country has been at loggerheads with fellow EAC members accusing it of making decisions and, at critical moments, bringing up arguments that slow down the envisaged political and economic integration.

But the Tanzanian authorities have always directly and indirectly dismissed criticism levelled against the country as the lobbying of ‘vested interests’ and those determined to use integration for their own ends.

And now, the EPA stalemate has brought the question to the fore once again – by not going along with the rest of the team is Tanzania being selfish and inconsiderate?

Addressing a press conference in Dar es Salaam last Wednesday, Foreign Affairs and EAC Cooperation minister Augustine Mahiga appeared to be responding to claims Tanzania was behaving like a ‘spoiled brat’ suggesting there were vested interests in the EPA deals.

Dr Mahiga, who said Tanzania wanted assurance the deal would not affect the country’s industrialisation dream, argued that Kenya had signed the agreement to protect its own horticulture farmers whose main market is in the EU, while Rwanda’s decision wasn’t linked to business benefits.

It is easy to see why the rest of the regional bloc finds it so hard to understand Tanzania. The signing of the EPAs by Kenya and Rwanda and soon does not mean the full agreement is ready for implementation. It will only come into effect when all EAC partner states sign and ratify it.

For Kenya, a reported 200 firms and four million jobs are at stake in the cut flowers, tea, fresh vegetables and coffee sectors. The country has been on a charm offensive to try to have the agreement signed by the EAC member states.

Kenyan Vice President William, who attended the recent EAC Heads of State summit in Dar es Salaam where the deadline for signing the EPAs was pushed back to January next year, said the agreement had given the EAC a lot of credibility and had assisted the region to attract investments.

He said backtracking on the agreement would erode the credibility the region has built over the last 20 years.

“This will negatively affect prospective trade arrangements with other countries,” he said.

Yet just like in the past, it’s only elsewhere that Tanzania’s tendency to pursue its interests at the real or perceived expense of other EAC members condemned. Back home, the government’s hardline stance on such sensitive matters is widely envied.

A University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM)-based political analyst, Dr Benson Bana, said the position Tanzania had taken on EPAs was aimed at protecting its own interest and “there is nothing wrong with that”.

“This whole thing is about national interest, even with the other EAC partner states, they are doing what is best for their people,” he told Political Platform in an interview Monday.

Dr Bana said the Tanzanian government had no obligation to be apologetic but should take its time to weigh the benefits and dangers, to its growth plans, of signing the EPAs.

“You cannot allow any external influence on such sensitive matters. There is no need to rush.”

Prof Gaudence Mpangala, a political science lecturer at the Iringa-based Ruaha Catholic University (RUCU), said the spirit of regional integration should not be used as an excuse to sign bad deals. “National interest always comes first,” he said.

Sibling rivalry

Well before the EPAs, Tanzania’s hardline position on sensitive integration issues has been interpreted as sign the country no longer sees itself in the bigger picture and simply does not trust other East Africans.

Some analysts see it as sibling rivalry pitting Tanzania against Kenya and Uganda. But others argue that the cautious approach by the country when signing major deals with its EAC partners is a no-brainer.

“EAC countries are at different stages of development. Take Kenya, for example, it is way ahead because the British colonisers developed it better since it was full colony. Tanzania was some sort of satellite colony,” said Dr Bana.

For years, Tanzania has been at the receiving end, and chided for “dragging” her feet on the regional bloc’s envisaged political federation and monetary union.

Early last year, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda renewed their push to fast-track the East African Community Political Federation Protocol under the Northern Corridor Infrastructure Projects initiative. According to Uganda, unending consultations threatened to undermine the process and hinder achieving the deadline of having an EAC federation by 2016.

Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi had failed to agree on the proposed federation model for the presidents to adopt and requested more time to consult on the report compiled by experts on the drafting of a constitution for the federation and the timelines for implementation.

The then President Jakaya Kikwete, in his address to the country’s parliament in 2013, talking about the allegations his country was an impediment to regional integration, said the country would not agree to fast track political federation by jumping over other key integration processes such as the monetary union.

“I am highly puzzled and deeply saddened by efforts to sideline Tanzania even in issues that have all along been discussed at the level of the EAC summit meetings,” said Mr Kikwete.

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has long advocated the fast-tracking of the political federation, insisting that the region should not only be an economic bloc, but also a political one.

In 2013, soon after Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta ascended to power, he marshaled Uganda and Rwanda into a ‘coalition of the willing’ arrangement in which they initiated a raft of infrastructure, telecommunication, defense and tourism-promotion projects in East Africa’s Northern Corridor.

However, the grand plan by Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda to proceed with major infrastructure connecting the three countries way back in 2014 (isolating Tanzania and Burundi) has now come to haunt two partners. Rwanda has now abandoned the alliance, choosing Tanzania and Burundi for access to the sea through Dar es Salaam.

This year, Uganda too, chose Tanzania ahead of Kenya. It is now to route its oil exports through Tanzania after a report found the country was a cheaper and more secure option than Kenya. Uganda is to use the Tanga seaport to export its crude oil, rather than Lamu in Kenya.

Source: All Africa

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