The first week of September saw Kampala inundated with pomp and colour as road show trucks criss-crossed the city, promoting awareness of the East African Community (EAC). We were puzzled. Puzzled because either are two parallel initiatives at EAC integration awareness, or a duplication of effort and resources. This is because we had just entered the city from the western axis, having completed the first leg of the Uganda Component in the on-going Integration for Development campaign across the five Partner States of the EAC. Spearheaded by the East African Business Council, the campaign is the exploratory phase of the implementation strategy for the East African Agriculture and Rural Development Programme. The focus of the programme is organic agriculture, based on the smallholder farmer as the unit of production. And so it was that in Uganda, over the month of August, this initiative had been piloted with two projects in western region. These are among the hundreds already mapped across the country, with target of each rural home earning a minimum of Shs3,000,000 per month through exporting high quality organic foodstuffs and related natural resources. We grew up knowing the Nyakagyera Wonder Water by its strange genesis, namely the water of the Bachwezi. This is a natural ‘stream’ hidden in a wooded gulley between two hills below Katooma Primary School, in Rugaaga Sub-county, Isingiro District. And for decades, it has been one of the sources of domestic water during the dry season. However, since March 2015, this ‘drip’ of a...

MOMBASA: Special locomotive engines to be used for laying the standard gauge railway (SGR) track have already been offloaded from Mombasa port. Kenya Railways Managing Director Athanas Maina told The Standard yesterday that the locomotives are being transported by heavy duty trailers to Mtito Andei and Emali from where the laying of the rail track will start. The Chinese contractor, China Road & Bridges Corporation (CRBC), announced that laying of the track between Nairobi and Mombasa will begin in two places in November. Officials say the exercise will start from Mtito Andei's Kathekani area towards Mombasa while the other works towards Nairobi will start from Emali. The MD said that all, save for only five per cent of land on the entire rail track corridor from Mombasa to Nairobi, has been procured. On the issue of land around the Nairobi National Park, where the SGR will pass through, Mr Maina said a joint team from Kenya Railways and the Kenya Wildlife Service has started reviewing various aspects of conservation on the project. "We have reached good consensus with the KWS Trustee Board on the need to ensure park boundaries are not altered," he said. Source: Standard Digital

The East Africa Farmers Federation is urging East African Community member countries to harmonize laws on management of natural resources. The Federation’s CEO, Stephen Muchiri says deforestation is negatively affecting agriculture which is a key sector that supports the region’s economy. Forestry is viewed as one of the most important sectors globally. In the East African region about 22 percent of the total land area excluding water bodies, is under natural forest. In sub-Saharan Africa about 65% of the total land area is being degraded due to deforestation, which is affecting important sectors such as agriculture and tourism. It is in light of this that EAC member countries have been asked to harmonize relevant laws in the management of forests and natural resources. Muchiri however blamed farmers for not conserving forests around them in their pursuit for sources of fuel. The concerns were raised during a two day meeting organized by Eastern Africa Farmers Federation, Center for International Forestry Research and the East African Legislative Assembly to oversee amendments of some clauses in the EAC Forest Management and Protection Bill 2015. Source: KBC

This multi-stakeholder dialogue will engage some of the region’s most influential policymakers and private sector actors and we believe that your participation and insights will help us generate a meaningful and impactful discussion on the future opportunities for deeper and wider integration as a tool for enhancing economic development and fostering sustainable development. Today, East African countries integration efforts are at a crucial juncture. The region is facing a complex web of closely interlinked and overlapping trade integration opportunities at the multilateral, regional and bilateral level, with a variety of partners. On the one hand, efforts towards increased convergence among existing regional integration process such as EAC, SADC and COMESA in the context of the TFTA and subsequently the CFTA initiative, raise significant complexities but also an enormous potential to unleash major economic gains. On the other hand, East Africa is developing significant trade and investment relationships with rapidly growing emerging economies such as India or China. The region also maintains close links with large traditional trading partners albeit through somehow more asymmetrical relations. Finally, East Africa needs to position itself vis-à-vis recent trends towards the negotiations of so-called mega-regional initiatives outside the continent such as the TPP, TTIP or RCEP. This event will provide a space for an open and interactive dialogue among key stakeholders including policymakers, experts, private sector actors and representatives from IGOs and RECs on the opportunities that enhanced trade integration, at the regional, continental, and global levels, can bring in terms of achieving of sustainable...

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) director general Roberto Azevêdo has called for solutions to the remaining issues of the Doha Development Agenda ahead of the 10th Ministerial Conference scheduled for December 15-18 in Nairobi, Kenya.  The potential emerging deliverables for the Nairobi conference include LDC and development outcomes on export competition in agriculture, and a number of provisions to improve transparency in several issues being negotiated, Azevêdo said. “The view emerging from many of the meetings in which I have participated is that a set of deliverables is within reach which has the potential to make the Ministerial Conference a success and to help us move our work forward. And, crucially, there is the common view that those deliverables should have development and LDC issues at their heart,” he said. Azevêdo was addressing a meeting of all WTO members in Geneva on Thursday to report on the current state of play in negotiations on the remaining issues of the Doha Development Agenda. He urged members to seize the opportunity that Nairobi represents, saying the conference should deliver substantive support for growth and development. “Time is short. It is essential that we have an answer to this question within the next month. Once we have a clear picture of what the Nairobi outcomes might look like, then we can work hard to deliver them,” he said. Azevêdo is expected to continue consultations at forthcoming meetings of the G20, the African Union, the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, and of...

The East African Business Council (EABC) and Innovation Norway have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) committing to work together on various priority areas on trade. The MoU was signed, yesterday, by Innovation Norway's chief executive Anita Krohn Traaseth and EABC chair Denis Karera, in a ceremony witnessed by the Norwegian Minister for Trade and Industry, Monica Maeland, and the Secretary General of the East African Community, Richard Sezibera, at the EAC headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. Innovation Norway is the Norwegian government's instrument for innovation and development of Norwegian enterprises and industry. The agency supports companies in developing their competitive advantage and to enhance innovation. Under the five-year deal, EABC and Innovation Norway will work together on trade facilitation; joint activities that are beneficial to both institutions, including conferences, trade missions; and business to business engagement both in EAC, and Norway and other Nordic countries. According to a statement, some of the main areas of cooperation will be in the petroleum and education sectors with the latter focusing on the information and communication technology sector. The two parties further agreed to increase market access through information sharing; promote investment in both regions, as well as capacity building and technical assistance. Earlier on, Norwegian minister Maeland, and Sezibera held bilateral talks on possible areas of cooperation between Norway and the EAC. The talks focused on the upcoming negotiations between the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) and the EAC. Sezibera informed Maeland that the EAC Council of Ministers was quite positive about...

MEMBERS of the private sector and the government have been advised to consult each other and see how they can solve challenges that impede Tanzania to take advantage of the readily rice market in the East African countries. A Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) consultant, Dr Halima Noor, told a news conference during a high level policy dialogue for rice value chain stakeholders that Tanzania was not utilising her potential in producing and selling rice in East Africa. "Something should be done now in this important rice sub sector," she said in Dar es Salaam over the weekend. Tasked by TPSF, Dr Noor presented a paper titled 'A Policy Scoping Study on Improving Rice Exports to the EAC region by the Tanzania private sector.' The meeting organised by TPSF and Trade Mark East Africa was attended by members of the private and public sector from within and EA countries. The study found out that several challenges face Tanzanian business persons such as 75 per cent tariff when exporting rice to Uganda and Rwanda which is contrary to EAC laws. The rice which is subject to 75 per cent tariff is the one imported from outside the region mainly from Asia. However, some EA countries claim that Tanzanian businessmen sell to them rice which is illegally mixed with the one imported from Asia. The meeting recommended setting up of Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) offices and verification machines in all border areas to strengthen quality control measures and curb smuggling. Another...

Kenya’s exports to Uganda in July more than doubled, underscoring the latter’s position as the country’s key destination of goods. New economic data from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) show that East Africa’s biggest economy exported goods worth over 90 million U.S. dollars to Uganda in July, from 44 million dollars in June. It is the first time in trade relations between the two nations that Kenya has exported goods worth that much in a month to Uganda. Kenya’s exports to the country have been averaging 43 million dollars a month since the year began and 33 million dollars in the past years. The surge, therefore, is an indication of how crucial Uganda is to Kenya as a trading partner in the East African community. Uganda imports from Kenya livestock products, in particular meat and milk, an assortment of manufactured goods, fuel through the port of Mombasa, cement, steel bars, common salt and beer. In the first half of this year, Kenya’s exports to Uganda totalled 253.5 million dollars, a rise from 238 million dollars during a similar period last year. Last year, the country’s exports to Uganda stood at over 578 million dollars, a drop from 622 million dollars in 2013. On the other hand, Uganda exported to Kenya goods worth 171 million dollars in 2014, up from 152 million dollars. While Uganda’s exports to Kenya, which mainly consist of agricultural produce, have been consistently rising in the last five years, Kenya’s to the country have been dropping....

The World Trade Organisation is holding its 10th Ministerial Conference (MC10) in Nairobi from 15 to 18 December. Foreign Minister Amina Mohammed will be chairing the conference. It will be a challenging undertaking. The minister was expressing a common African sentiment when she said (in Geneva on July 1) that the Doha Development Agenda negotiations cannot be concluded without "credible" developmental outcomes in Nairobi. She went on to say African countries will blame Kenya for hosting the 10th ministerial meeting in Nairobi when all their developmental demands are pushed under the carpet for concluding the round.  Need for East Africa and Africa to Unite at the MC10 Minister Amina is right. Oduor Ong’wen, the executive director of the ODM, congratulated the minister for her statement. In times like this, all nationalist forces must join hands and not let the WTO divide and rule the nation (or the region, or Africa). I write as chairperson of SEATINI (Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute). I was also, from 2004 to 2009, the executive director of the South Centre. The SC is a policy and research think tank of the global South based in Geneva. It was founded among others, by the late Mwalimu Nyerere. SEATINI is an NGO. Since 1997, we have been engaged in developing technical and negotiating capacity of East African trade negotiators in Geneva as well as in the capitals of East African countries. We have also been working with national MPs and members of the...

African countries are expected to lobby for more access to the duty free global market for agricultural products at the upcoming World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference in Nairobi. Top on the agenda during the December 15-18 meeting is the issue of reduction of agricultural subsidies and implementation of domestic support measures to reduce competition from exports from developing countries. According to Peter Kiguta, EAC Director General of Customs & Trade, African countries are already negotiating on how to present these key issues to the other partners for negotiations. “This is the right time is Africa lobbying for support from developing countries to comprehensively address their issues,” said Mr Kiguta. African countries are seeking to address the issue of agricultural subsidies, “anti-dumping” barriers by rich countries like the US, Japan and Korea that restrict exports of agricultural products, steel and other goods from developing countries; the impact of lower industrial tariffs on domestic industries in many African countries; and the failure of the rich countries to provide adequate technical assistance to enable developing countries to comply with trade regulations and compete effectively. READ: Africa to negotiate for better terms at WTO meet READ: Africa to negotiate for better terms at WTO meet 
“Under the WTO, African countries have been forced to open their markets to cheap imports that undermine domestic agriculture and industry while rich countries have failed to lower their own trade barriers, which cost developing countries some $100 billion in lost opportunities,” said Mr Kiguta. He added that instead of...