The East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) have this morning jointly launched Round-Tables for Consolidating Regional Stability through Peaceful Elections in the Republic of Burundi at the Royal Palace Hotel, in Bujumbura, Burundi. Themed Peaceful Elections in Burundi for Regional Integration, the COMESA-EAC Roundtables are joint dialogue initiatives/activities geared towards promoting a peaceful environment for elections, prevent elections-related violent conflict and support a smooth transition during and after the 2015 elections in Burundi. Launching the Roundtables, the First Vice President of the Republic of Burundi, HE Prosper Bazombanza commended the EAC and COMESA Secretariats for organizing the important dialogue roundtables at the right time when Burundi was heading towards General Elections from May 2015. The First Vice President reiterated the region's a firm desire to see democratic, peaceful and stable elections in the Partner States and commended the two Regional Economic Communities for the role they have played and continue to play in supporting the consolidation of democracy, peace and stability in Burundi. The First Vice President welcomed the inclusive roundtable as it gave the Barundi people another opportunity to share experiences, to dialogue on the pertinent issues, and to outline the initiatives that should be taken by various stakeholders as the election approaches “in order for us to achieve the goals we want”. “It goes without saying that it is the values of dialogue and inclusion that are of the essence during this period, and which will enhance reconciliation efforts and...

Norway and the East African Community (EAC) member states are set to hold exploratory talks on a comprehensive free trade agreement, a Norwegian diplomat said on Thursday. Norway's Ambassador to Kenya Victor Ronneberg told Xinhua in Nairobi that Norway and East Africa currently have a trade pact that will expire in 2021. "Both parties have expressed interest to have a trade deal along the lines of the Economic Partnership Agreement that has been signed between the European Union (EU) and the EAC," Ronneberg said during a courtesy call to the Safi International Kenya. Norway is among the European nations such as Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Iceland that are not members of the EU. They are members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The ambassador said the current trade deal between EFTA and Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda (EAC states) offers products and service from either regions limited access to each other markets. "However, EAC products will not continue to access Norwegian markets if they graduate to become middle income states," he said. According to the envoy, the talks will take place in phases. Ronneberg said the level of trade between Kenya and Norway remains way below the potential. Data from the Norwegian Embassy in Kenya indicates that the Nordic nation provided 4 million U.S. dollars in aid to Kenya in 2014. "Most of the funds were used to assist Kenya to implement its new constitution as well as promote gender equality," said Ronnerberg, noting that Norwegian investors are increasingly...

East African Community (EAC) partner states made significant progress during 2014 in terms of integration by ratifying and implementing several protocols and agreements, the regional grouping's secretary-general has said. "The single customs protocol has been properly implemented in the northern and southern corridors," Richard Sezibera told a Tuesday press conference at the EAC's Arusha headquarters. The northern corridor runs from the Kenyan port city of Mombasa to Ugandan capital Kampala, before continuing on to Rwandan capital Kigali. The southern corridor runs from the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam to Burundian capital Bujumbura and Kigali. Briefing the media on the EAC's achievements in 2014 and the way forward this year, Sezibera said the grouping's five member states had introduced a "single window" at the two ports, the two main entrances to the region. He added that member states had also introduced an electronic cargo tracking system. "All documentation and transactions regarding the movement of goods are done at one point in order to reduce business costs and time spent," said Sezibera. "By implementing the single customs protocol, roadblocks and other non-tariff barriers have been removed or reduced within the entire EAC region," he asserted. The EAC chief went on to note that, during the 2014/15 financial year, member states had invested in numerous road and rail projects. "While Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi are investing in central railway corridor projects, which will also connect the region to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya is engaging in a standard gauge...

The East African Community (EAC) is a great idea that has borne much fruit and is probably destined to go far. After the unfortunate collapse of the original EAC in the 1970s, the bloc was revived by regional leaders in the 1990s and arguably remains one of the rare achievements of the much-maligned Kanu regime. With time, citizens of the now five countries have come to appreciate the benefits of having the bloc. Interestingly, even a perceived reluctant integration candidate like Tanzania has grown to be Kenya’s most important trade partner with locals especially in the north of the country benefiting immensely from the market provided by Nairobi city. However, the bureaucrats perhaps with the connivance of politicians, do not see the inevitable: that you cannot stop the progress of the economic bloc, even if you were to delay it with a raft of administrative or non-tariff barriers (NTBs). This is because in a voluntary bloc, reciprocity is the driving principal. From Tanzania blocking Kenyan tour vans from accessing Tanzanian game parks to Kenya—in apparent retaliation—blocking Dar buses from dropping tourists at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), we have seen it all. None of them is wrong or right: there is nothing like free lunch in a bloc though. Yesterday, we reported that regional countries are negotiating to allow airlines to operate freely from all countries without restricting carriers from emanating flights from the country of origin. That will probably cut the rent enjoyed by the likes of Kenya...

Regional blocs including the East African Community (EAC) should introduce a levy on imports to help self-finance its organs, a new report suggests. The regional entities have depended solely on contributions from members yet a number of countries have not been meeting their obligations. A report by the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), a financier of research institutions in Africa for over a decade, said a country facing an economic crisis or catastrophe finds it difficult to pay dues. ACBF said integration schemes such as EAC and the Common Market for Eastern and South African have copied the Eurozone model of regional groupings that depend on member contributions. “A funding mechanism that combines national contributions with independent revenues, such as import levies, would go a long way to helping African regional economic communities become financially independent,” said the report. However, analysts said clarity would be needed on how such a tax is to be implemented because some of the countries may fail to co-operate since the blocs do not have tax collection machinery. “It is very good to have an alternative method of financing regional initiatives such as those we are party to. But the tax also has to be collected by someone. Who is it that would collect it?” asked Joseph Kieyah, principal policy analyst at the Kenya Institute of Public policy Research and Analysis. Prof Kieyah said the levy alone would not achieve much unless there are willing participants in regional integration schemes. He said the citizenry and...

On 14 October 2014, The European Union (EU) and The East African Community (EAC) partner states signed an agreement establishing an economic partnership between the two parties. This Agreement was also signed The Economic Partnership Agreement focuses on trade regimes for goods, fisheries, agriculture, economic and development cooperation, good governance concerning taxes, customs duties on products originating in the EAC partner states, customs on products originating in the EU party and infrastructure. Customs duties should be eliminated on agricultural products originating in the EU. "Customs duties should be abolished at the entrance of the EAC territory." Jean Pierre Bacanamwo from the Ministry in charge of EAC Affairs advised that the commission in charge of the partnership is waiting for EAC Ministers to sign the Agreement. "Then, it will be conducted in the National Assembly and Senate in each EAC partner state to be analyzed before being ratified by the Heads of States and coming into force", stated Bacanamwo. He also noted that the process takes time, and that its implementation should come in by June 2105. Source: All Africa

The East African Community (EAC), which comprises Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, intends to become “a single tourist area” under its vast regional integration project, APA learns here on Tuesday. We want to make the East African Community a single tourist area with a single tourist visa, EAC Secretary General, Richard Sezibera said during a press conference held at the organization’s headquarters in Arusha, northern Tanzania. The use of the single tourist visa has been in force since last year for Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya which are determined to move faster than the other two members on the path of economic integration. Tanzania has announced that it wants to join the single tourist visa. This is very important. Burundi has also expressed interest in joining the system, Mr. Sezibera said. The regional bloc has however experienced a major crisis over the past two years with Burundi and Tanzania suspecting the other three members of having a hidden agenda and isolating them. The presidents of Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya had met several times in the absence of their counterparts in Tanzania and Burundi to accelerate the construction of large regional infrastructure, including a railway and a pipeline connecting their three capital cities. The tension between Tanzania and Rwanda reached its peak in May 2013 when, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete suggested the holding of direct talks between Kigali and rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) based in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Furthermore, a Tanzanian contingent...

Rusumo border post on the Rwanda Tanzania border now operates a one-stop centre for clearing goods and people crossing the border; the first of its kind in the region. That means that a Rwanda businessman exporting goods overseas, through this border, can have all the paperwork sorted from one point on the Rwanda side of the One-Stop-Border post. Similarly, goods entering the country can have all the customs paperwork sorted from the other side without going through another cumbersome process upon crossing the border. This has been made possible by new facilities put in place under the One-Stop-Border project that bring all officials involved in the process of clearing people and goods under one roof. This has indeed been long-overdue. Traders have for decades complained about the numerous and lengthy customs documentation while crossing borders with the region. This has not only cost them time, but also money as goods unnecessarily delay reaching the market. No doubt, therefore, that this project, if rolled out to all border posts, will eliminate the red tape and enable people and their goods to move faster for the good of all the economy of the whole region. This project therefore comes in handy in accelerating economic integration in the East African Community, by eliminating some of the non-tariff barriers to free and faster movement of goods and services. Beyond regional integration, faster movement within our borders will certainly make the region a better and cheaper place to do business and more attractive to foreign...

The East African Community secretariat is optimistic that negotiations on a free trade area between three trading blocs in Africa will bear fruit. A statement by EAC Secretary-General Richard Sezibera, said the region had made significant progress in trade talks between the EAC, Comesa and SADC. “It is my conviction that we are at the tip of a historic agreement that will enable Africa to reclaim her rightful place in the global arena, and lay a solid foundation for a continental free trade area,” said Mr Sezibera. At their first summit in Uganda in 2008, heads of state and government of the three regional economic communities directed that the trio should establish a free trade area with haste. FIRST PHASE OF TALKS A road map and time line for establishing the area were agreed upon, with the first phase of negotiations addressing tariff liberalisation, rules of origin, customs cooperation and customs-related matters, non-tariff barriers, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, trade remedies and dispute settlement. The second phase focuses on negotiating trade in services and trade-related issues, including intellectual property rights, competition policy and trade development and competitiveness. The tripartite agreement is set to open up Africa as a market for products from other trading blocs within the continent. In a recent interview, Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Charles Mbogori said the chamber would soon be lobbying to also issue and automate preferential certificates of origin. “We as the chamber believe that the automation...

Just weeks after gaining full access to export sugar to Kenya, Uganda is preparing to cause another upset. This time, it is eyeing Kenya’s troubled maize market. And while the debate on sugar has been soured by talk of Kampala being used to dump the commodity in Kenya, now the talk surrounding the grain business is on pricing. At the moment, maize from Uganda is retailing at Sh800 per 90kg bag. Tanzania is also producing maize at relatively cheaper price than Kenya and is fast making headway in boosting its revenue by taking a pie of the local market. The cheaper imports have seen the price of maize in Kenya drop significantly triggering political discontent in some of the ruling coalition’s strongholds. This is likely to test President Uhuru Kenyatta’s leadership in East Africa Community especially on integration which guarantees free movement of goods and labour. The need to calm the political jitters forced Agriculture Cabinet secretary Felix Koskei to announce a change in the price of maize mid-December last year. The government had announced it would buy a 90-kg bag of maize at Sh2,200 only for the minister to increase it to Sh2,300 in less than 24 hours. Free trade area Mr Koskei was reacting to piling pressure from farmers in North Rift who were opposed to the set price saying they wanted to sell the 90kg bag for Sh3,500. Addressing the media at Kilimo House, Mr Koskei said the price was set in line with the prevailing market...