On July 18, the comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the East African Community (EAC) and the European Union (EU) was set to be signed, however, it did not go ahead as planned. Officials who spoke to The New Times over the weekend were non-committal on divulging details pertaining to the sudden change of heart that comes after Tanzania recently decided to halt signing, citing the "turmoil" that the EU is experiencing following Britain's exit. The East African Business Council (EABC) has been advising partner states to sign the deal earlier than previously agreed as further delay, it argued, would hamper EAC exports to the EU. "The signing has been called off so whatever issues are contentious should be brought to the table for renegotiation," EABC chief executive Lilian Awinja said. Emmanuel Hategeka, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, confirmed that both parties agreed to call off the signing. The five partner states previously proposed that the signing ceremony be held in the first week of August. Last month, however, the EABC recommended July 18 as the date of signing to coincide with the visit of the EU Commissioner for Trade, who is expected in Nairobi for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). It was thought that the recommended July 18 signing would give partner states ample time to ratify the agreement before October 1, the deadline earlier set by the EU. Failure to meet the EU deadline on ratification, it was noted,...

"Our Union is facing emergency issues on a daily basis, these issues require instant and effective mechanisms to address them." African Heads of State and Government underscored the need for fast tracking integration to achieve socio-economic growth, peace and security missions as well as to enable the continent fully finance itself. Opening the 27th AU Summit held at Kigali Convention Center (KCC) Sunday, current Chairperson Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno said : "Our Union is facing emergency issues on a daily basis, these issues require instant and effective mechanisms to address them." It is on that realization that the AU Summit focused on the "African Year on Human Rights with a particular focus on the Rights of Women," he said. President Deby underlined that the alternative sources to finance the activities of the AU , its budget, peace and security on the continent and AUC leadership election were some of the key issues discussed at the Summit. Commending President Paul Kagame for honoring women, empowering, and placing women at the center of national development, AUC Chairperson Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said :"We used to hear the people saying that behind any successful man, there is a woman. But in Rwanda we can now say women and men stand side by side to achieve success." With a view to putting in place a framework, the Commission had undertaken a journey towards adopting Agenda 2063 under her leadership to create a continent that is integrated, peaceful and prosperous, driven by its own...

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr Aziz Mlima said his country would not sign the EAC-EU EPA citing ‘turmoil’ in the EU occasioned by the impending exit of the United Kingdom. “Our experts have analysed the pact and established that it will not be to our local industry’s benefit. Signing this pact at the moment would expose young EAC countries to harsh economic conditions in post-Brexit Europe,” Dr Mlima said. The decision to snub signing of the trade deal as expected was not interpreted well by some member states with unnamed Kenyan government official quoted by Standard Digital saying Tanzania has been proving difficult and slow in firming up the new deal. The reaction by the Kenyan official may be understood as the decision by Dar to opt out of EPA deal signing between East African Community (EAC) and the EU leaves Kenya’s exports exposed to heavy taxes. Kenya exports tea, coffee and flowers to the 28-member market it is feared that Tanzania’s position may wreck the whole deal which may also spell doom to more than 600,000 workers mainly in the flower farms and fresh foods producers in Kenya. However, it is important also to put the EPA deal and the Tanzania’s situation into proper perspective. The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are intended to enhance regional integration and economic development in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. They are based on the principle of asymmetrical market opening, meaning that they provide a better access...

African leaders have adopted plans to trial a new passport that is expected to ease trade and movement of people across the continent. This follows the launch of an African Union passport by the African Union (AU) that is set to replace the need for Africans to acquire visas to travel within the continent. According to Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amb Amina, business leaders have found it cumbersome to promote intra African trade due to the numerous barriers that limit cordial engagement. “The people who really need it are the business people so that they are able to move around the continent without that visa requirement so that they can invest,” Amb. Amina said. Intra-African trade stands at a paltry 12 percent, with African nations choosing instead to business with Europe, Asia or the Americas. Less than 15 countries also have reciprocal visa regulations that don’t require citizens to acquire visas when travelling. The AU expects to eliminate the need for African citizens to have visas to travel by 2018. Amb Amina said during the trial period, the African passport will only be available to presidents and senior government officials over a two year period. “We want to experiment with it ourselves so that any challenges are addressed before we roll it out to the rest of the population of the continent,” she said. The African Union passport is in line with plans by the AU to create a continental free trade area to promote intra-African trade. Regional trade has...

Brussels (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that a massive EU-US trade deal could soften any damage caused by Britain's exit from the European Union following last month's referendum. The treaty, bogged down in negotiations, has "a very significant ability to act as a counter" to the negative effects of Britain's eventual divorce from the EU, Kerry told a press conference in Brussels. "It’s our job to make sure that we adequately inform people about the facts of how TTIP will actually work for the people of Europe," Kerry said. "It will protect jobs, it will protect their regulatory rights, protect their abilities with respect to labour and the environment," he said. Negotiators from the US and the EU are currently in trade talks to finalise the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that would create the world's largest free trade area. But the shock setback of Brexit and rising opposition to the deal in France and Germany have raised serious doubts that it will be achieved by the end of the year as hoped. Kerry said that he would embark on a European tour in "the coming month ... to lay out the facts for people to understand exactly the positive side" of a potential deal. Kerry's comments came just days after the top US trade official said that Britain's vote to break with the EU opens new questions over the deal. Britain "is a very significant part of what makes TTIP attractive," said...

In the days after Brexit, markets plunged, the Pound went into free fall, a Prime Minister resigned and the future not only of the UK, but also the European Union seemed uncertain. Beyond the reasons that divided people over this vote and its economic and political ramifications; is a growing frustration with inter-governmental integration models. Why then - with the woes of the European Union so visible - is Africa forging ahead with an ambitious plan to accelerate the free movement of Africans and integrate national economies beyond border communities and physical proximity? There are three reasons for these interesting points of divergence. The first is that the contexts between Europe and Africa are dramatically different. The European Union (EU) is the most integrated region globally. For at least 50 years, Europeans have enjoyed the benefits of integration. A large population of the EU has never known what it is to demand for visas while traveling in the region, or seek work permits to work elsewhere in Europe than their home-countries. On the contrary, Africans have a completely parallel experience to this. Africa is the most fragmented continent worldwide, and its people suffer the cost of non-integration on a daily basis. This fragmentation was imposed on Africa, and what is happening now is that we are working to reverse this process, without violating the principle of sovereignty. The second reason is the different centralised and decentralised models of governance between the European Union and African Union. The European Commission has...

Arusha — Industrial investors and other producers operating in Mauritius intend to penetrate the East African market and they plan to start off this initiative by staging a special manufacturer exhibition in Arusha next October. That apparently has resulted from the working visit to the Indian Ocean Commission in Mauritius, by the Secretary General of the East African Community, Ambassador Liberat Mfumukeko, who has just concluded the trip there following an invitation by the Secretary General of the IOC, Mr Jean Claude de l'Estrac. The Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) is a regional integration organization that has memberships of Mauritius, Comoros, Seychelles, Madagascar and France. The IOC now wants to work closely with the East African Community, according to an official statement from the EAC Headquarters in Arusha. Apart from visiting IOC, Amb Mfumukeko also seized the opportunity to market EAC to the Mauritius Private Sector stakeholders, including meeting with the Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture; Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Enterprise Mauritius; Mauritius Investment Authority; Business Mauritius; and Mauritius Export Association.  As it happens, almost all the stakeholders met expressed the need to explore investment and business opportunities between Mauritius and the EAC Partner States. Mauritius exports 400,000 tonnes of sugar annually. The Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture and several other private sector players expressed their readiness to penetrate the EAC market and urged the Secretary General to link them with the East African Business Council (EABC), the private arm of the East African Community, in order to strengthen collaboration in...

Africa’s ‘skills of the future’ requires firm partnerships between NPOs, private and public sectors There’s an ongoing discussion about development in East Africa and a new narrative have emerged in recent years that it is a lot more exciting. It is a story of resilience, self-reliance and a passion for growth facilitated largely by technology. It is therefore encouraging to see trade investments being committed by South Korea and its East African counterparts, as it will allow more people to access technology and address the issues of skills and employment. Case in point is the signing of a bilateral deal to set up a key science and technology institute in Kenya for a tune of 10 billion Kenyan Shillings which could prove to be an important accelarator of growth. But the issue of education, skills and employment are not for the public sector alone. It is against this backdrop that Samsung Electronics Africa have adopted an attitude of innovation; introducing world-class technology where it previously hasn’t existed. Our aim is to make sure that every African child have access to education no matter where they are – be it in a rural area lacking infrastructure or perhaps in an existing infrastrastructure but lacks educational resources – by providing access to technology. Samsung sees education as the seed of innovation and we believe digital technology can completely transform the learning process, as well as the nature of teaching and learning, to create inclusive environments for everyone. Our Solar Powered Internet Schools,...

NAIROBI — Kenya may abandon 10 years of negotiating a trade deal with the European Union (EU) as part of the regional East African Community bloc and go it alone, to avoid having duties of as much as 30% slapped on its exports from October. A so-called Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi and the EU is on hold after Tanzania’s government said two weeks ago it was reluctant to sign any deal because of "recent developments affecting the bloc’s union". The UK voted in a referendum on June 23 to withdraw from the EU, ending a 40-year partnership. Uganda said last week it also wants to delay signing the deal. "We would like to sign it together; the desire is that we sign it together," KenyanForeign Minister Amina Mohammed said in the capital, Nairobi, last week. "If we get to a stage where we can’t do that then we also have the right to make our own sovereign decisions." The negotiated EPA would give members of the EAC immediate duty-free, quota-free access to the EU for all exports. The Brexit decision is complicating trade negotiations as ministers from around the world gather this week for the14th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Nairobi, where the EPA accord has been scheduled to be signed. The EU imported goods worth €2.6bn from theEAC last year, data from the European Commission shows. Kenya exported 126-billion shillings ($1.2bn) worth of goods to the EU in 2015,...

Arusha — East African Community (EAC) is exploring investment and business opportunities with Mauritius, an Indian Ocean state that is famous for sugar exports and lately development in technological innovations. In order to initiate the collaboration, Enterprise Mauritius is set to organize a visit and an exhibition to the EAC in October this year in which over 15 key manufacturers from the archipelago will participate. This was revealed here after last week's visit to Mauritius by EAC Secretary General Liberat Mfumukeko during which he seized the opportunity to market the bloc to the Mauritius private sector stakeholders, including the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry and another one responsible for agriculture. He also conferred with senior officials of Enterprise Mauritius, Mauritius Investment Authority, Business Mauritius and Mauritius Export Association. Mauritius exports 400,000 tonnes of sugar annually. "All stakeholders met expressed the need to explore investment and business opportunities between Mauritius and the EAC partner states," said Mr Owora Richard-Othieno, the spokesperson of the community and head of the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Department. He said the Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture and several other private sector players expressed their readiness to penetrate the EAC market and urged Mr Mfumukeko to link them with the East African Business Council (EABC), the private arm of EAC, "in order to strengthen collaboration in trade, investment and mutual cooperation". It emerged during the visit that the Mauritius Board of Investment has also invited the Investment Promotion Authorities/Agencies in the EAC member countries for a...