EAC resolves common market protocol

By Benson Kathuri

Contentious issues that threatened the signing of the common market and the process of integration among the East African Community states have been resolved.

A deal brokered in Kampala late last month has left Tanzania smiling after its objections to free-for-all movement as well as indiscriminate residency were upheld.

Tanzania was opposed to free-for-all land ownership, automatic permanence residence after five years and making identity cards the standard travel document in the five EAC partner states.

The new resolution now dashes any hope of the landless in the region that harboured ideas of owning land in another territory.

Free movement will not be free after all. This is because travellers will still be required to produce a passport at the border posts.

Sources said only Rwandans would be allowed to use national identity cards to travel as their Government had developed the third generation document that is electronically compatible.

"You can scan every detail in it electronically. The Kenyan one is a simple document meant for identification," said Juma Mwapachu, EAC secretary general in Nairobi.

"The five states have agreed to use the same travel documents until all the countries will issue the third generation IDs."

On land ownership, the right to give land will be decided by national laws though no ‘serious’ investor will be denied the same for investment and to settle.

Some countries, including Kenya had advocated free movement of people and a right to permanent residence after five years but most Governments have expressed concern that unresolved land issues in most countries might cause social conflict.

Resolved issues

Mr Mwapachu said, the document is as good as signed after the contentious issues that had stood on its wake were resolved. But, the draft protocol that was approved by Council of Ministers pushed ahead its implementation in the next six months. According to the EAC integration roadmap, the common market was supposed to start in January 2010 together with the full implementation of the customs union.

The protocol that would allow free movement of people, trade in services and right of establishment was expected to come into force in January next year but has now been pushed to July.

"We have advised the Heads of States that the partner states would need time to ratify the protocol once it is signed in November," said Mwapachu.

Justice ministers and attorney generals from the five EAC Partner States of Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania will meet in Mwanza next week to fine-tune the document before it is taken for approval by the Heads of States.

The Heads of States Summit that is the supreme decision-making body is expected to converge in Arusha on November 20 to sign the document, ten years after the community was established.

New-found consensus

However, the new-found consensus and the beckoning larger market for both goods and services has forced professionals in the region to the drawing board to develop strategies to seize the emerging opportunities.

The draft protocol has identified financial services, tourism, education, communication, transport, distribution and services sectors as some of the sectors to be liberalised immediately.

However, partner states will continue to negotiate to liberalise other sub-sectors in the service industry after the protocol comes into force on July 1, 2010.

During a meeting in Kampala last week, professionals from the five countries discussed coalitions in pursuing services reforms.

They also sought ways to engage in trade negotiations, promote information and knowledge sharing and seek to promote consensus on services.

Mr Gerald Sendaula, the Vice chairman of the East African Business Council said the services sector suffer from a lack of organisation at the national and regional level, despite being critical to economic growth in the region.

Most firms in the EAC have failed to translate services market opportunities into tangible commercial benefits.

Currently, the service industry is the fastest growing sector in the region, controlling over 40 per cent of the total wealth.

According to the 2007/08 estimates, the service sector contributed 49 per cent of GDP in Uganda, 60 in Kenya, 54 in Tanzania, 45 in Burundi and 55 in Rwanda.

Several bodies such as bankers, insurers, and professional societies have organised themselves into sector-specific associations.

However, Sendaula said absence of industry-wide coalitions means crosscutting challenges affecting the sectors have not been properly addressed.

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