Ministry launches EAC integration communication policy

When the Business Daily visited the national border points a few days ago, border officials said most citizens cannot distinguish between the fully fledged custom union with common market, demanding to be allowed into the neighbouring states without travel documents.

The success of the ministry’s communication policy will be gauged by how best it succeeds in interpreting several annexes in the custom union and common market protocols that restrict movement of goods and services.

The custom union protocol only allows goods that are either wholly manufactured from locally available raw materials or those with value addition component of up to 35 per cent to move freely without attracting tariffs.

Kenyan companies such as General Motors, Nestle and KenolKobil have in recent times faulted the custom union’s rules of origin saying absence of its clear method of calculating the 35 per cent cap has turned it into a non-tariff barrier.

On the other hand, the annexes in the common market protocol place restrictions on movement of labour, capital as well as access to land .

For instance, partner states can only accept labour from member states if they seek jobs in the sectors that the country has accepted to liberalise.

The annexes allow other countries in the region to restrict capital movement up to 2015 while rights to establishment and land are subservient to national laws.

Mr Kingi appointed a legal taskforce made up of government and private sector players, and headed by justice stewards Madzayo, to audit all the provisions of the common market protocol and its annexes and make recommendation on the kind of the reforms required before its domestication.