Opinion & Analysis
EAC competition law will increase cross-border trade
Trucks at the Kenya-Uganda border at Malaba: Administrative requirements at the border points still pose a challenge. Photo/FILE
Posted Thursday, August 26 2010 at 00:00
It is for this reason that EAC secretariat is looking to operationalise the laws.
The Act has provisions on M&As, counterfeits and other intellectual property rights violations, abuse of market dominance, and prohibits partner state subsidies, among others. It also spells out punishment.
While critics of competition regulation argue that it should not apply in a free market, the guidelines are applied even in the more advanced capitalist states and regions such as the US and the EU. The EAC is lagging.
Absence of national competition laws in other EAC partner States appears to have curtailed efforts by the Secretariat to operationalise the 2006 law.
It is important that partner States support operationalisation of the laws by establishing of national competition authorities to support the regional institution.
Bonge works with the East African Business Council.
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