Non-cooperation hurting EAC integration

L-R: Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni , Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuri and Rwandan President Paul Kagame interact shortly after a group photograph during the 17th Summit of the East African Community in Arusha, Tanzania on 2nd March 2016. PPU PHOTO 

By Stephen Kafeero

Arusha. Regional integration and development within the East African Community (EAC) is being undermined by a failure of member states to cooperate on key issues.

Speaking in Arusha, Tanzania, Bernd Schmidt, the Deputy Programme Manager GIZ, said political openness among member states was required if integration is to be deepened, suggesting that the envisaged single currency and political confederation cannot be achieved if the successes of the Customs Union are not safeguarded and the Common Market is not pushed any further.
The retricted movement of goods, services and persons including the right of establishment and the right of residence were cited as key issues hindering the acceleration of economic growth and development for the people in the region.
“Trade within the EAC region has been declining for over four years now. This is a new reality for the community. You might get the impression that some East African leaders together with their administrations are happier to import be it soap, sugar, biscuits, or pharmaceuticals from Asia, North America or Europe than to support existing small firms from within the region; firms that create more of the desperately needed jobs and wellbeing among let me say brothers and sisters,” he said.

Mr Schmidt who was speaking to journalists from across the EAC on a media tour of various key EAC projects urged member states to work for the greater common good than advancing selfish interests. The journalists supported by the EAC Secretariat, in collaboration with the GiZ and the East African Business Council (EABC) will focus on the first two pillars of the integration namely Customs Union and Common Market with emphasis on the pharmaceutical sector, mutual recognition agreements, and the single customs territory.

“Nationalist sentiments in the region have become stronger. They seem to have become stronger worldwide. But that does not make the situation any better. Each month, it seems, the EAC Partner States increasingly behave like competitors and not like partners. Regularly we must read -or the press has to report- about new trade barriers be it in the form of tariffs or of non-tariff barriers to trade.”

The media, he said, has an enviable, but critical, duty to inform the public about the opportunities, achievements and challenges the community faces because the East African integration is not only key to the sustainable economic success of the partner states but also to peaceful development and cooperation among East Africans.
Lilian Awinja, the Chief Executive Officer of the EABC says the EAC has come from very far amid challenges and achievements.

“There are challenges, there are bottlenecks but we are hoping as we highlight those challenges, the partners states will improve those process so that the benefits intended can be achieved sooner than later,” she said.
She added: “At the global level you will note that there are a lot of story about the EAC being the first integrating regional community within Africa so you will find that while we have challenges which are expected, there is a lot that is going on within EAC that has not happened within other integrating communities so EAC has a good story to tell.”
sdkafeero@ug.nationmedia.com