WHEN the first East African Community (EAC) collapsed in 1977, some in the Kenyan government celebrated with champagne. Since its resurrection in 2000, officials are more often found toasting its success. A regional club of six countries, the EAC is now the most integrated trading bloc on the continent. Its members agreed on a customs union in 2005, and a common market in 2010. The region is richer and more peaceful as a result, argues a new paper* from the International Growth Centre, a research organisation. Many things boost trade, from growth to international deals. The researchers use some fancy modelling to pick out the effect of the EAC. They find that bilateral trade between member countries was a whopping 213% higher in 2011 than it would otherwise have been. Trade gains from other regional blocs in the continent are smaller: around 110% in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and 80% in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). Those numbers for the EAC are all the more impressive because the available data stop before the EAC’s common market had properly come into effect. Progress on that front has sometimes stuttered. A 2014 “scorecard” identified 51 non-tariff barriers. Full implementation could double the income gains seen so far, say the researchers. Not surprisingly, it is landlocked Rwanda which would see the biggest benefits. Tanzania, which has dragged its feet on integration, would profit the least. The researchers are warier of the EAC’s other grand project: creating a...

The East African Business Council has elected Mr Econie Nijimbere from Burundi as its new Chairman for the period of 2016-2017. The Burundian is taking over from Mr Dennis Karera, who served at that capacity from the year 2015. Mr Nijimbere was serving as a Vice Chair. According to the statement issued yesterday, the new EABC chief is currently the President of Burundi Federal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CFCIB). He has over 16 years of experience in the private sector, from 2010 to the present. He has also served as President of the Burundi Manufacturers Association as well as Board Member of the Burundi Revenue Authority (OBR).  In his acceptance speech, during the council annual general meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya, Mr Nijimbera thanked the outgoing Chairman Mr Karera and the Executive Committee for a job well done and the progress made so far. He outlined key areas that his tenure will focus on implementation of the EABC Strategic Plan 2015/18, extensive advocacy on issues outlined in our EABC Policy Advocacy Agenda document that aims at addressing key sectoral and cross cutting trading policy challenges as well as highlighting gaps and discrepancies in the implementation of the East African Community Customs Union and Common Market Protocols which are hindering East Africans from enjoying advantages presented by East African Community Integration and the wider EAC Common Market. Source: All Africa

East African Community regional integration has not evolved as envisaged. However, it is still achievable, given that the EAC partner states have harmonised most of their policies and internal and external tariffs. As EAC governments unveil their annual budgets, it is essential for the respective proposals to boost cross-border trading, movement of goods and manpower, and address the fundamental issue of non-tariff barriers across the region. Non-tariff barriers are restrictions and limitations that are obstacles to trade. They are not tariffs but rather take different forms of government participation. These include restrictive trade practices, administrative and custom entry procedures, charges on imports, technical barriers, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, institutional corruption, tedious licensing procedures, and transport, clearing and forwarding procedures. Non-tariff barriers have positive and negative effects and present a major stumbling block to full EAC integration. They trim the magnitude of imports in a country by promoting and cushioning local manufacturers and producers against dumping of sub-standard goods in the local markets. However, they also limit the movement of goods across the region and lead to increased cost of doing business, unnecessary delays at border points, and restricted opportunities for business expansion. The EAC committee on the elimination of non-tariff barriers reported that there were 40 unresolved barriers and three new ones in 2012. In 2014, the number of unresolved barriers had increased to 56 and the new ones to five. Insufficient infrastructural services have been identified as a major barrier that increases the cost of doing business and commodity...

Zanzibar — Despite widespread complaints, substandard, counterfeits, and expired products are still entering the Islands at an alarming rate. Many consumers remain uncertain about the goods they use including the essential products like foods and medicines. It is thought that importation and sale of substandard, counterfeit, and expired products have doubled in recent years. Health officers have frequently warned that substandard, counterfeit and expired products can endanger our health and safety, as well as adversely affect businesses by threatening innovation and local production. The authorities here have been using its Zanzibar Food, Drugs & Cosmetics Board (ZFDB) to stop distribution and supply of substandard, counterfeit and expired products smuggled into the market. Since its establishment in 2007, ZFDB officers have been working hard to ensure that only genuine goods are sold to the consumers. Thousands of tonnes of goods have been confiscated and destroyed as one of the Boards' objectives for ensuring Safety and Quality of Food, Drugs, cosmetics, medical devices and related products for people. The establishment of the Zanzibar Bureau of Standards (ZBS) will spur the ongoing efforts by the ZFDB to prevent Zanzibar from being a dumping ground for substandarFood, Drugs & Cosmetics Boardd, counterfeit and expired products. According to the environmental department, and Ports Corporation, an average of 23,000 containers of different lengths, with diverse items including second hand goods and new items such as clothes, foods, vehicles, and electronics are imported annually, with estimation that 20 percent of the items are fake or counterfeit which...

East African Community (EAC) member states have prioritised development expenditure as countries look to further strengthen the growth agenda of the regional economies. In the national budget estimates presented yesterday, the regional bloc’s biggest economy Kenya will be spending $22.8 billion, Tanzania $13.5 billion, and Uganda $12 billion during the next financial year that starts on July 1. Rwanda plans to spend some $2.49 billion in the fiscal year 2016/17. Burundi budget reading is not aligned with that of the EAC bloc. Kenya While presenting the budget speech, Kenya’s Finance Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, said the 2016/17 budget will focus on infrastructure development, agriculture, including agro-processing to spur the country’s growth, among others. The minister also abolished tea and sugar development levy. The energy sector got Ksh39.9 billion, standard gauge railway (Ksh228.5 billion) and roads got Ksh147.6 billion. Tanzania In Tanzania, Minister for Finance Phillip Mpango indicated that the new budget is focusing on alleviating challenges of people in low-income groups, and setting the foundation for middle-income country. In a country, where the national debt reportedly stands at $20.94 billion as of March, programmes geared at supporting development were allocated 40 per cent of the total budget, an increase from 25 per cent this fiscal year. Among others, the Tanzanian government intends to borrow Tsh7.4 trillion from domestic revenue to fill the gaps of the fiscal year 2016/17. The government will also spend Sh17.7 trillion on operational costs and Sh11.8 trillion for development. Over Tsh4.77 trillion or 22.1 per cent...

An increasing drive to promote domestic textile manufacturing in East Africa is threatening the trade in used clothing to the region, the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) has been told. The warning was delivered at a session on the global trade in used clothing and textiles at the BIR’s annual Convention and Exhibition in Berlin last week (31 May – 1 June), where delegates disagreed on the status of the used clothing trade. While some  consider used clothing to be a product generated through sorting operations and recognised market specifications, others notably the East African Community (EAC), continued to regard used clothing as a waste and a threat to new clothing production. This view has given rise to calls in some parts of the world for a ban on used clothing imports. At a meeting on an EAC proposal to phase out imports of used textiles and footwear by 2019, BIR Textiles Division president, Mehdi Zerroug, of Framimex in France, said: “Second-hand clothing is a product and new clothing is a product – this needs to be understood.” EAC The EAC comprises six countries, namely: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. Guest speaker Jalia Nabukalu Packwood, business development officer at Bangor University’s Sustainability Lab in the UK, explained that used textiles traders number in the many tens of thousands in places such as Uganda and Kenya. The convention heard that more than 80% of all clothing purchases in Uganda were used clothes, while Kenya collected US$ 54 million...

The Kenyan port of Mombasa and Tanzania's Dar es Salaam port are the traditional competitors but the Kenyan government is now planning a huge new port at Lamu, while Tanzania is developing Bagamoyo. Both ports will be larger than any other port in sub-Saharan Africa if completed as planned. They will also be at the centre of much bigger developments, with industrial zones being laid out and intensive farming being proposed. The Tanzanian authorities hope Bagamoyo will handle 20 million containers a year, that is 25 times larger than the port at Dar es Salaam. Kenya's planned Lamu port is expected to be just as big. However, these are the proposed, long term figures, which will be achieved over decades rather than years. Construction will take place in phases as and when required. The scale of the initial phases has not been determined but will be much more modest. One hurdle that is delaying the development of both projects is the question of compensation. In the case of Bagamoyo, 2,000 people have lost their homes or farmland to the project and associated industrial zone. The Tanzanian government says that it will pay a total of $20.9m (£14.4m). But the figure would be much higher if there was a plan to enlarge the Dar es Salaam port as it is already surrounded by urban development and has limited room for expansion. Apart from serving their own domestic markets, the Tanzanian and Kenyan ports will also be competing for a wider prize,...

As a Kenyan, I am happy to hear that Rwanda is not walking away from Northern Corridor SGR, but working on a plan that will concurrently rely on its good relations with both Kenya and Tanzania to advance not only its interests but also the collective interests of the whole region through the railroads. However, I would urge the Rwandan Government to broadcast this position much more loudly to the world. The reason is because media outlets from various parts of the world, based on the earlier misreporting on the topic, are spreading all sorts of innuendo about the impact of the decision by Rwanda to use the Tanzanian route on the existing cordial relations among the members of the East African Community. In conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to urge the peoples of East Africa not to lose sight of the vision and mission that originally created the East African Community that is currently powering the economic renaissance of the region. Let us hold hands and march forward together in unity and fraternity. We stand to gain more from collaboratively confronting our problems than from working separately. Who knows? In the future, we could evolve into a super state out of our collaboration. We could come up with something really ingenious with which to represent ourselves to the world – something like “The United Republic of Swahili Speakers”. Imagine how incredibly beautiful that would be. We would have everything within our borders – oil, coal, diamonds,...

This was revealed by the Chairman of Board of Directors Ali Mufuruki who said EAC still needs the support of his organisation especially when it comes to Infrastructure development. He said without well-developed infrastructure the EAC may fail to attract more international investors. “We are committed to raise the funds from our development partner’s because 80% of them are willing to offer their support after we proved capacity in effectively utilising the little resources they have given us,” said Mukuruki. This was during the TMA -2014/2015   Annual performing report release in Kampala. The $1billion will be used to support identified projects in the EAC countries Namely Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and the newly incorporated South Sudan. Without naming the projects TMA will finance in the upcoming five years, Mufuruki said the projects will be developed by the member’s states and must be in line with supporting trade and improving social services in the region. Some of the development partner’s TMA hopes to raise the $1billion funds to finance the projects in the EAC Economic block includes   Sweden Embassies, United Kingdom’s DFID, Canada and USIAD among other financiers. The above mentioned partners have been Influential in supporting TMA in the last five years.  “The results  are  truly  impressive .TMA,s support  for the Modernisation  of ports  in Mombasa and Dare Salam  and its  one stop  border posts  are  transforming  trade  and  driving  integration across the region. The time it takes to move goods from Mombasa to Kampala has been...

The implementation of the East African multi-entry single tourist visa is being hampered by the differences in national visa policies and regimes in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. Speaking at a recent stakeholder forum in Kigali, a senior tourism development officer from Uganda Anne Awori, said that member states are forcing tourists holding the pass to pay extra upon entry into their countries. “We have come across many cases of officials asking tourists who have obtained the single entry visa from Uganda to pay entry fees in Rwanda or Kenya,” said Ms Awori. “A recent case is when Rwanda charged a 13-year-old tourist who was issued a regional visa from Uganda an additional $60.” Earlier, Uganda had blamed Kenya and Rwanda for breaching the visa agreement by issuing their own local visas to tourists instead of the single EAC tourist visa. At one time, Ugandan tourism officials were quoted by the local media as threatening to pull out from the visa project. “A visa is supposed to be issued by the first country of entry. For a Congolese for instance, Rwanda is their first entry country. But when we issue the visa, Uganda raises questions and makes them pay again for the pass,” said a Rwandan official. The heads of state from the three countries launched the single tourism visa in February 2014 under the Northern Corridor Infrastructure Projects. The idea is to allow tourists to move freely within Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda without applying or paying for another visa. Tourism...