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E. African apex business body decries barriers in regional trade

Xinhua, May 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

East African apex business body on Saturday decried the high level of non tariff barriers that exist during cross border trade.

The newly elected East African Business Council (EABC) Chairman Econie Nijimbere said in Nairobi that non tariff barriers add to their transaction costs.

"The business community continues to face non-tariff barriers which contribute to the low level of intra-regional trade," Nijimbere said during the EABC 17th Annual General Meeting.

During the meeting Nijimbere was elected to replace Dennis Karera who was the previous chairman. The EAC signed the Custom Union protocol in 2005 and a Common Market Protocol in 2010.

The Customs union brought about a three band structure for the Common External Tariff for raw materials, intermediate goods and finished goods.

Nijimbere said that there are critical gaps and a disparity in the implementation of the two protocols which is in turn creates obstacles for business persons across the region.

He said that lack of harmonized standards for goods and services is also hampering trade.

EABC Acting Executive Director Lillian Awinja said that the trading bloc has a limited number of harmonized regional standards.

"This is a form of non tariff barrier because it leads to expensive and time-consuming re-testing processes at the border points," Awinja said.

She said that harmonization of standards should be fast tracked for the 20 most traded goods across the EAC. She noted that currently some products have several standards.

Typically, the EAC committee on standards approves a standard for a particular product and the forwards the standard to the EAC council of standards so that they are declared as an EAC standard.

Awinja added that the absence of a regional technical framework has contributed to the application of national technical regulations instead of the EAC technical regulations.

"This situation is further exacerbated by a frequent misunderstanding on the different roles of the national regulatory authorities," she said. Endit