9 November 2009
editorial
Nairobi — Reports that Uganda manufacturers unsuccessfully tried to push for an extension of the East African Customs Union transition period by another five years are both good and bad news.
Good in the sense that the rest of the region united in saying no to a development that would have taken the integration process back by five years.
According to the integration strategy, the Customs Union is a precursor to the other pillars of the integration, namely the Common Market, the Monetary Union and the Political Federation in that order.
These are expected to be achieved by 2015.
Failure to meet the deadline for any of them means delaying the others.
That it took President Yoweri Museveni to tell his business community to put its act together and comply with the integration time lines demonstrates that the much-needed political will is there to achieve these current milestones.
A fully-fledged Customs Union and a Common Market are expected to triple intra-regional trade, which has already doubled since the borders were partly opened in 2005.
It has been agreed in principle at both the Summit and Secretariat organs of the EAC that partners that are not ready to keep up with the pack on certain matters can be left behind, in the expectation that they will catch up later.
What is emerging though is that so far, there has not been a major case of any country being left behind, with promises that contentious issues will be addressed by respective states by 2015 when the region expects to enter into a political union.
Having said that, the Ugandan manufacturers have real concerns that must be addressed within the fully-fledged Customs Union that comes into force on January 1, 2010.
That they are ill prepared to compete with the region's economic giant, Kenya, is obvious.
If the sector sinks in the flood of goods imported into the country duty-free, the country would experience serious job losses, defeating the objective of the integration process, which among other things seeks better living standards for East Africans.
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