East African Business Week

ARUSHA, TANZANIA - Delay by the partner states in harmonizing national laws and legislations in conformity with the East African Community (EAC) Common Market Protocol is making the implementation of the protocol difficult.
    The Common Market Protocol's overall objective is to accelerate economic growth and development of the partner states through the attainment of the free movement of goods, persons and labour, services, the rights of establishment and residence.
    However, as Tanzania's Deputy Minister of EA Cooperation Abdullah Saadalla who represented the council of ministers during EALA assembly held in Arusha, Tanzania observed, "partner states have had a negative perception that has accompanied this same landmark achievement of the Common Market having come into effect on July 1, 2010".
    "There  is  a sense  that it is  business  as usual  in our region  despite  the  much heralded  launch of the Common Market, we need to ensure that we rectify this situation and expedite rather than settle for a leisurely approach to the actualization of the Common Market," he explained.
    He said there are legal and regulatory frameworks that need to be put in place in order to breathe life into the declarations on the various free movements of the factors of production under the Customs Union and Common Market operations.
An analysis of the East African regional media indicates that the major problem still hurting the process of implementing the Common Market protocol in the region are the non-tariff barriers.
    These were emphasized by a survey done by the East African Business Council (EABC) in December last year and a background paper of the eighth meeting of the sectoral council on transport, communications and meteorology held in Arusha in May 2011.
    The sectoral council recommended that measures should be put in place so that containerized cargo is weighed at port of entry and exit while loose cargo is weighed in several weigh bridges along the transit route.
EAC Head of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Richard Owora however told East African Business Week that EAC is implementing a study on harmonization of axle load control in the region through JICA funding.
    He explained that there is also another study for developing uniform weighbridge to print out certificates, interlinking of weighbridges and developing a regional network of weigh bridge stations.
    EAC is also in discussions with the EU on modernizing weighbridges along the central corridor through construction of traffic control centres   
     The sectoral council report also mentioned the several police roadblocks along the northern and central corridors estimated at 36 between Mombasa and Kigali and 30 between Dar es Salaam and Rusumo border points.
    The report noted that the impact of these roadblocks to businesses results  in delays in transport, bribes, estimated at $0.55 per roadblock per truck on Ugandan side and $1.3 on the Kenyan side or $25.70 on the Northern corridor per truck and $7.5 per road block per truck.
    The report also identified the port charges that are not harmonized where they should be benchmarked with international port charges.