Ugandan president urges EU to end agricultural subsidies

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has urged the European Union (EU) to remove subsidies on agriculture inputs to its member states if the East African Community is to benefit from its market.

"Africa will benefit much more if subsidies on agriculture inputs are removed to have a break through on agro-processed products' exports," Museveni said, according to a State House statement issued late on Wednesday.

Museveni, who was meeting the Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly Dan Kidega, said the East African region should also cut the costs of production in order to regulate prices of products from both areas.

He urged the region to focus on products with value addition like textiles, leather, milk, wood, cooking oil products and processed coffee.

The EU has an agreement with African countries whereby they can export their products to the EU market tariff and quota free.

Some African countries have however argued that the agricultural subsidies EU gives to its member countries render African products non-competitive because of the high costs of production. Endit