Thursday, December 18, 2008

Deadline for EAC treaty extended

The deadline for signing of a treaty to establish a common market for East African Community (EAC), has been extended to April next year.

The deadline was changed from December this year, to allow for negotiations on the outstanding issues in the protocol.

This disclosure was made yesterday at the public Hearing on the EAC Common Market, at Kenyatta International Conference Centre.

INTERGRATION

"Private firms should now position to take advantage of trade and investment opportunities in a borderless EA," said Catherine Kimura, a Kenya representative to the 52 member East African Legislative Assembly (EALA).

The Customs Union, launched three years ago, is now operational.

"We intend to have a staggered integration process, that will move in phases, from the current union to a Common Market by 2010," said Kimura. A successful union is expected to provide the platform for the establishment of a common market.

"The common market will provide for free movement of goods, persons, services, labour and capital between the five member states," said Kimura.

Consensus has already been reached on the core areas of the EAC Common Market Protocol.

Member states are yet to agree on areas relating to free movement of persons, the right of establishment, right of residence and permanent residence.

Other sticky areas include social, environment policies, statistics, research policies, technology and institutional reforms.

CHALLENGES

"There are other fears that will need to be addressed in the protocol, including loss of identity, abuse of dominant positions between members states, and loss of tax revenue by respective countries," said Didas Masaburi, Tanzania MP to the EALA.

Participants said that while EAC was moving towards full integration, significant challenges remain.

"There is still apprehension about fear of loss of residence, unresolved issues of dual citizenship and identity of East Africans," said Masaburi.

While Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda have reached consensus on most of the issues, Tanzania has been a reluctant participant.Tanzania has demonstrated this by failing to include other EAC nations in its initial public offerings.

If all time lines are achieved, January 2010 will herald the commencement of the operations of a Common Market for East Africa.

Eventually, all member states will achieve a political federation by 2012.

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