David Muwanga
18 August 2008
Kampala — THE East African Community (EAC) Common Market Protocol should not be signed until the common market comes into force, manufacturers and the private sector have said.
"Non-tariff barriers continue frustrating Uganda's exports and imports although the East African Community agreed to remove them and not to impose new ones," the Private Sector Foundation's (PSFU) executive director, Gabriel Hatega, said.
The protocol was supposed to be signed this December and the Customs Union came into effect in 2005.
The Customs Union was aimed at removing barriers to trade like internal tariffs, non-tariff barriers on intra-EAC trade and introduce a three-band common external tariff plus a list of sensitive products that should be protected.
After the Customs Union, the next step in the EAC integration process is the Common Market.
With the Common Market, there will be free movement of goods, services and persons along with the associated rights of establishment and residence of citizens of the partner states.
He said the EAC should safeguard sub-sectors where Uganda has suffered injury because of the Customs Union, adding that Uganda should obtain policy space to levy export duty on goods like leather.
The Customs Union was supposed to grant three years to Uganda to impose a 10% duty on goods from Kenya as we await the generation of more power from Bujagali.
"There is no clause on negotiations on the transfer of custom duties imposed on imports from non-EAC countries to the final country of consumption."
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