Arusha. Finally, the East African Competition Authority (Eaca) has taken off with the finalization of a study on the regional retail sector. Although its permanent seat is yet to be determined, the newest body of the East African Community (EAC) is now fully operational. Findings of the study are meant to develop policy and regulatory instruments that will address challenges faced by various players in the regional retail sector. A source at the EAC secretariat told The Citizen that in order to entrench its activities, a law establishing Eaca would be amended. The EAC Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2019 would address the gaps of the 2006 legislation that established the institution. The Foreign Affairs and EA Cooperation deputy minister Damas Ndumbaro said recently plans are afoot to align the new institution to the broader activities of the EAC. These will include conducting series of awareness workshops for the partner states officials, consumers and members of the business community. The authority is allocated some $ 727,501 for its expenditure during the 2019/2020 financial year which started yesterday. The estimates were approved on Friday by the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala). The total EAC budget tabled was $ 111m. According to Dr. Ndumbaro, major activities to be undertaken by EAC during 2019/2020 fiscal year will include recruitment of the staff. Others are amendments of the organization's regulations 2010 and development of merger and acquisition regulations. Eaca, a new of nearly a dozen institutions under the EAC, has a mandate to promote fair trade...

Implementation of common market protocol EAC and maintaining the fate of our local farmers and business people has become a major challenge to full realization of of the regional integration since the time it came into force in July 1, 2010. The common market has faced this challenge mainly because some members of partner states either do not understand the importance of regional integration or they think that by blocking free movement of people, goods and capital across the borders of partner will spur economic growth. Among the objectives of the Common Market Protocol include acceleration of growth and development among partner states through the attainment of free movement of goods, labour, strengthen coordinate and regulate the economic and trade relations among partner states in order to promote accelerated harmonious and balanced development within the community. All these could be made impossible following stringent rules that partner states are putting in place and the utterances by political leaders from partner states. A good example is the trade dispute between Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam that led to the arrest of Starehe Member of Parliament Charles Njagua. In defence of Mr. Njagua Majority Leader in the National Assembly Aden Duale also made sentiments that seemed to support what Mr Njagua had said. Mr Duale accused Tanzania of being a stumbling block to regional integration following their move to stop top Kenyan professional Silvia Mulinge from taking up a job in Tanzania. Such perceived differences or suspicions between member states should not be wished...

Agricultural producers in Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) stand to increase share in the global market, thanks to a project being fast-tracked by the regional bloc to enhance food health standards. Agricultural stakeholders have been calling for the upgrading and accreditation of laboratories for testing agricultural products for export and managing pesticides to enable exporters access global niche market segments. The Comesa secretariat is implementing a project on mainstreaming Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS) capacity building into national policy frameworks in five countries. Director of Agriculture and Industry, Thierry Kalonji said most of the regional agricultural products fail to access global market even in terms of premium prices as producers fail to observe outlined standards. Kalonji spoke during a three-day training held in Kenya last week. Health standards During the meeting, experts drawn from agriculture, livestock, and health sectors discussed a framework of identifying and prioritising health standards issues that impede export of agriculture commodities. The framework dubbed Prioritising SPS Investments for Market Access (P-IMA) was designed by the World Trade Organisation Standards and Trade Development Facility. Kalonji said that similar training has been conducted in Uganda and others are lined up for Rwanda, Malawi and Ethiopia, the five participating countries. ”The training is aimed at equipping the institutions dealing with production and export of agriculture and livestock products, with the skills to apply the P-IMA tool to identify SPS priorities that can be mainstreamed into National Planning and Investment Frameworks,” he said. He added: “In general, investments in...

The African Continental Free Trade Area comes into effect on July 7 and it will be a historic day as the continent becomes a single market. The African Union hopes the AfCTA will accelerate continental integration and trade, boost manufacturing and address possible overlaps within trade blocs. This, however, requires members to review import tariffs, striking off import duty from 90 per cent of goods for free access to goods and services across the continent. But, a recent United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) report warns that the trade gains may not be evenly distributed among AU member states if proper rules that consider trade patterns, tariff profiles, liberalisation schedules and dependence on tariff revenue are not made. Bottlenecks The AfCFTA implementation team already anticipates bottlenecks based on the existing problems facing intra-African trade in the EAC, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the Economic Community of West African States and Southern African Development Community. While presenting The Economic Development in Africa Report, 2019 titled “Rules of Origin for Enhanced Intra-African Trade” in Nairobi last week, Chris Onyango, an expert on international issues, said the way the rules of origin will be created, enforced and verified will determine distribution of economic gains from the AfCFTA and shape future regional value chains. According to the Unctad report, intra-Africa trade was only 15.2 per cent between 2015 to 2017. Growth has been constrained by differences in trade regimes, restrictive Customs procedures, administrative and technical barriers, inadequacies in trade finance, information...

The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the East African Community (EAC) bilateral tariff liberalisation negotiations have been concluded. Launched in 10 June 2015, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) aims to establish a single market for 27 African countries with a combined population of about 700 million (57% of Africa’s population), and Gross Domestic Product above US$1.4 trillion. Information from the SACU Secretariat office states that SACU and EAC have done their part by concluding the bilateral tariff liberalization negotiations between the two regional blocs. The Secretariat says the conclusion of the SACU-EAC negotiations is a significant step towards realising the benefits of the whole TFTA. The TFTA is based on three pillars, namely, market integration, infrastructure development and industrial development. As part of the market integration, member/partner states have been engaged in bilateral tariff liberalisation negotiations. The market access negotiations between SACU – consisting of Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa –and EAC, which consists of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda -- have been successfully concluded. As a result, the SACU-EAC private sector will thus have access to new and dynamic markets for exports as well as new sources of inputs for domestic production processes, thereby enhancing intra-regional trade.  Furthermore, the SACU and EAC secretariats, in a joint statement released last week, said that there was emphasis on the development of regional value chains in a wide range of sectors to deepen integration between SACU and the...

Knowledge and competence are important to tap the potential of the East African and wider African market regional business lobby group has said. The East African Business Council (EABC) and the EAC Secretariat With support from German Development Cooperation under “Creating Perspectives: Business for Development, East Africa”  EABC improved skills of managers engaged in the manufacturing sector from the six East African Partner States on Export Preparedness and Management. Working with selected 74 growth-oriented small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in East Africa the pilot project aims to improve their economic perspectives by increasing productivity, competitiveness, and innovation. Speaking at the award ceremony today, Hon. Peter Mathuki said that SMEs are the backbone of the economy not only in East Africa but also in Germany where 80 per cent of employment is attached to SMEs. EABC is establishing a desk to help with cross border trade challenges “EABC has repositioned to respond to the needs of SMEs in the region by establishing a fully-fledged desk to help members with cross border trade challenges and provide advisory for business development” Mr Mathuki said. Support to start-ups and SMEs is crucial for the creation of employment and income generation for the steadily growing population in the EAC Partner States. The Chief Guest at the award ceremony, Hon. Kennedy Musyoka, Member of East African Legislative Assembly commended the SMEs for exploring the opportunities of the wider EAC market and employing the youth in the region. “As legislators, we would like more business to grow and expand...

Kenya has also agreed to allocate land for a dry port to South Sudan at the Naivasha Special Economic Zone and for a logistics hub near the new Lamu Port. Further, the two countries have agreed to set up a joint border commission for the management of the common border between the two East African nations. The agreements were announced today at State House, Nairobi, after bilateral talks between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his visiting counterpart from South Sudan. “To further ease the movement of goods consigned to South Sudan, the Kenya Government has set aside 10 acres of land at the Inland Container Depot in Naivasha Industrial Park, for use as a dry port by the Government ofSouth Sudan,” said President Kenyatta when he addressed a joint press conference with President Salva Kiir. The President made the revelations as he assured South Sudan that Kenya is fast tracking the completion of the LAPSSET projects, including transnational highways, Oil Pipeline and the Lamu Port, among others, to link the two countries. “The first berth (of the Lamu Port) will be ready this August while Berths 2 and 3 are expected to be completed within the year 2020.  I will invite Your Excellency, with other regional leaders, to inspect the Lamu Project in due course,” said President Kenyatta. The President said Kenya and South Sudan will put more efforts in completing trans-national highways including Eldoret-Lokichoggio-Nadapal-Kapoeta-Torit-Juba Road. “In pursuit of our shared vision to deepen further our cooperation, it is important we...

Uganda is hopeful that the African trade meeting, taking place in Niger on July 7 will promptly address the issue of non-tariff barriers which for long has stood in the way of trade among countries. The meeting is intended to launch the operationalization the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AFCTA). The Agreement, a free trade area among 52 of the 55 African Union nations, was adopted during the 30th ordinary session of the African heads of state in Addis Ababa in January 2018. It brings on the table a market of 1.3 billion people. Literally, it means Africa wants trade where all its countries can trade with each without major restrictions. So far Nigeria, Eritrea and Guinea Bissau have rejected the agreement. By the end of May 2019, at least 24 countries had ratified the agreement meaning it can now be implemented. The agreement needed only 22 countries to kick-start work on supporting instruments. These instruments will be unveiled in Niger. Trade and Industry minister Amelia Kyambadde told reporters at the Uganda Media Centre today that there is now visible work in progress and Uganda expected members to address the issue of no-tariff barriers as soon as possible. Non-tariff barriers are trade barriers that restrict imports or exports of goods or services through mechanisms other than the simple imposition of tariffs. They include import bans, discriminatory rules of origin and quality conditions imposed by the importing country on the exporting countries. Others are unreasonable/unjustified packaging, labelling, product standards. These,...

Not need to hassle your way at the bus stand anymore to catch a ticket. Traveling across East Africa is set to be easier following the launch of our IIDEA project “Easy Travel East Africa”. The online platform will enable cross-border travelers to plan ahead for their journey through access to real time information on scheduled trips and compare pricing as well as reserve bookings. The new system seeks to provide cross-border universal ticketing and customer support services. Easy Travel East Africa project lead and Bekn Global Technologies Chief Executive Officer Nicodemus Barasa explains how the platform brings together regional bus operators, regulators, tour agencies and immigration agencies. The company has already engaged six regional bus operators including Modern Coast, Tahmeed, Dreamline, Mash Poa, Easy Coach and Riverside Shuttle. “A passenger only needs to visit our website and search for buses doing cross-border travels. They will then be able to book for their tickets online. They will get ticket details emailed and SMS confirmation sent to their phones, which they will use to board the buses they had booked,” Barasa said during the launch event in June, in Nairobi. Easy Travel East Africa's aim for seamless travelling across the region is additionally achieved by offering border pre-clearance services for passengers using their platform. Hereby the passengers’ information will be sent to the immigration offices prior to their arrival at the border through the platform. The platform is ready for use and will fully be rolled out in August 2019. Mr...

The hopes of China’s president Xi Jinping to play a more assertive role on the world stage were under pressure on Thursday as he headed to the G20 summit amid a trade war with the US and blows to his flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Mr Xi, who has reversed years of foreign policy caution, landed in Osaka amid reports that Tanzania had suspended a port project and Kenya halted construction on a coal power plant, dealing a major blow to Beijing’s ambitions in Africa. The port in the Tanzanian town of Bagamoyo was worth $10bn and would have been the largest in east Africa. But financing terms presented by the Chinese were “exploitative and awkward,” said John Magufuli, Tanzania’s president. “They want us to give them a guarantee of 33 years and a lease of 99 years, and we should not question whoever comes to invest there once the port is operational,” said Mr Magufuli. “They want to take the land as their own but we have to compensate them for drilling construction of that port.” When Mr Xi launched the BRI in 2013, developing nations enthusiastically signed on for loans to fund big projects that would set them on the path to prosperity. But six years on new governments are starting to cancel and renegotiate contracts given the weight of Chinese debt, casting doubt on the $1 trillion initiative set  to inaugurate a new ‘Silk Road’. Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port was a cautionary tale for many. After...