Harmonise laws for better trade, Kibaki tells EAC

Lack of uniformity in legal frameworks is hurting the growth of cross border trade in the East Africa Community common market even as member states dither in harmonising laws that would make the integration more effective.

EAC chairman President Mwai Kibaki said trade in the region increased from $2 billion in 2005 to $4 billion in 2010 but the residents of the five member states — Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi — expected more benefits from the market of 133 million people.

“We need to hasten the pace of integration. We should also fast-track the transposition of national laws that contradict the common market spirit to enable its successful implementation,” Mr Kibaki said.

EAC members in 2010 agreed to adopt a seamless market arrangement after they struck a deal over the three contentious issues that had held back negotiations.

Under the agreement reached in Arusha, the EAC Common Market Protocol would be subject to national laws on matters relating to land ownership, choice of identification documents and the right of residence.

A common market is considered advantageous because it enhances division of labour, freedom of movement for all the factors of production between the member countries, besides increasing competition and weeding out existing monopolies.

However these objectives remain distant for EAC where enforceable laws to settle disputes and promote integration are not in place.

Citizens complain that they cannot move to neighbouring states and seek employment, or start a business freely, while exporters complain of duplicate checks at border points as well as disparate quality and safety standards in different states.

While other partners such as Uganda and Tanzania are at an advanced stage of identifying which laws to change in line with regional common market, Kenya already has a draft amendment Bill which seeks changes in the existing statutes to align some 27 pieces of national laws with those of the bloc.

Insiders involved in ongoing regional integration talks said some members of the EAC have been cagey about knocking down administrative barriers for fear of their markets being flooded by cheap or counterfeit and contraband goods.

Mr David Nalo, the permanent secretary in the ministry of EAC Affairs said they would lobby the Parliamentary committee on Trade and Foreign Relations to have the Bill tabled in the House soon.

“The draft Bill has been lying in the office of the Attorney-General for a long time now and we are now thinking of approaching the parliamentary committee on Trade and Foreign Relations to introduce the matter in the House for speedy action,” he said.

Besides the challenges of non-uniform laws, integration in EAC also remains hampered by various factors such as border delays, a narrow export base, poor transport infrastructure and lack of sufficient energy resources.

President Kibaki said diversification into new fronts such as tourism and industrials would help boost earnings.

The region attracts four million tourists in a year, far less than visitors to South Africa or Egypt.

“We must, therefore, invest in tourism promotion in innovative ways including through projects that will, for example, offer tourists to our region opportunities to visit circuits that will take them to different parts of East Africa,” Kibaki said.

Despite the region making progress on transport infrastructure, particularly loans, low reserves of electricity remain a key put-off for investors.

Projects such as Bujagali hydro-electric power project in Uganda and the expansion of geothermal power generation at Olkaria in Kenya have been started to build a reliable power supply capacity across the region.

aodhimbo@ke.nationmedia.com