Kenyans took to social media on Monday to lament trade discrepancies with Tanzania.
The #fairTradeKe trended top most of the day on Twitter after the Nation published a story detailing a raft of trade barriers placed on Kenyan goods seeking market in Tanzania.
Those
who contributed to the debate decried the silence from Kenyan
authorities saying traders from Tanzania enjoy favourable cross-border
trade.
“We should build a wall along the border with
Tanzania! I think this is the best time for Kenyans to wake up on the
four agendas. Promote trade and manufacturing within. #fairTradeKe,” a
Ruth (@Agribusiness 360) tweeted.
Big Four agenda projects are food security, manufacturing, affordable housing and affordable healthcare.
Others
called for Kenyan authorities to hit back by increasing tariffs on
Tanzanian goods arguing that local manufacturers had been prevented from
exporting to the Tanzanian market through dissuasive tariffs.
Some claimed that vehicles bearing Kenyan number plates are
targeted by police in Tanzania forcing traders to hire Tanzanian cars
for smooth transportation.
“Hostility within the East
African Community is metered out to Kenyans mainly by Tanzania. Even if
Tanzania is claiming to protect its citizens from better economies,
there is no need of violating the rights of Kenyan citizens living in
Tanzania,” wrote Victor Mochere.
Trade tiffs
Tanzania and Kenya have been engaged in periodic trade tiffs especially over sugar and tobacco.
In the latest one, Tanzania declined to grant
Kenyan confectionery duty-free access to its market last year even
after a verification exercise was conducted to determine the source of
the industrial sugar used by the manufacturers.
Dar maintains that the duty-free sugar imported by Kenya in August 2017 still has an impact on locally-manufactured goods.
Both
Tanzania and Uganda had slapped a 25 percent import duty on the Kenyan
goods but Kampala lifted the tariff after the verification mission.
The matter remains unresolved after Tanzania requested for a second verification which Kenya rejected.
Kenya
and Tanzania are also locked in a tobacco trade war, where Nairobi is
protesting Dar’s decision to impose 80 percent higher excise duty on
cigarette transfers into Tanzania, despite the raw materials being
sourced in Kenya.
The East Africa
Community Common Market protocol provides for free movement of locally
manufactured goods within Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and
South Sudan.
A number of challenges, mostly those compounded by protectionist policies, however continue to hinder EAC intra-trade.
In
2018, the EAC intra-trade stood at only 20 per cent as opposed to 46
per cent of the Southern African Development Community, and 67 per cent
in the European Union.
-Additional reporting by The EastAfrican Reporte
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