Nothing beats a dialogue over a glass of wine and that was the case Wednesday evening when the Rwanda Private Sector Federation (PSF) lured members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) into the serenity of the Serena Hotel ballroom where a warm dinner awaited.

The regional assembly is holding its plenary sitting in Kigali and will be in the country until December 4; the private sector body used the opportunity to engage the legislators.

Although EALA headquarters are in Arusha, Tanzania, the legislative body’s sessions are held on rotation across the five partner states; the ongoing Kigali business is the Third Meeting of the Fourth Session of the Third Assembly.

There are 45 elected members of EALA who represent the 145 million East Africans living in the five partner states of Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya.

Benjamin Gasamagera, the PSF Chairman gave the opening remarks. 

"The private sector is the principle beneficiary of the legal reforms aimed at easing trade within EAC; I therefore call on EALA to give us a platform to play a more active role in the formulation process of these laws,” he said.

Then dinner was served, shortly after his speech. The tables were marked from one up to fifteen. They were all fully occupied.

The high table designated for a lineup of the highest ranking diners in the room was occupied by ministers Valentine Rugwabiza of East African Affairs and Francois Kanimba of Trade and Industry.

Others on the same table included EAC Secretary General Richard Sezibera, EALA Speaker Dan Kidega, PSF chairman Benjamin Gasamagera, Chairman East African Business Council Dennis Karera and Patricia Hajabakiga, the chairperson of EALA, Rwanda chapter.

The rest of the tables in the ballroom were occupied by members of the regional legislative body and top actors in Rwanda’s private sector as well as PSF staff led by the Chief Executive, Stephen Ruzibiza.

After everyone had had their fill, a conversation ensued. It was an exchange of ‘friendly fire’ as the private sector presented its grievances in the best of diplomatic manners that could be mustered yet still managed to deliver the points, home, loud and clear.

At the end, Kidega sent the room into rib cracking laughter when he remarked: "This was not a free dinner; we shall surely pay for it in form of finding solutions to the issues raised here tonight”.

What PSF said

William Babigumira, Director of ‘Single Project Implementation Unit’ at PSF made the case for the private sector in a ten minute presentation that focused on three laws currently under review by the partner states.

They include the EAC Non Tariff Barrier (NTB) Bill, 2015 (which was passed but not yet assented to by all Heads of State), the EAC Vehicle Load Control Act, 2013 and the EAC Customs Management Act.

Although the NTB bill was enacted into law in February 2015 by EALA, only Tanzania has so far assented to it (done by former President Jakaya Kikwete); the other partner states are yet to do so.

But before they do so, PSF has issues with the content of the law which originally called for punitive measures against member countries that failed to eliminate trade barriers in their respective territories.

"The content has been substantially altered during the process of its approval by different EAC organs and committees from the original version of October 2013 adopted by the 12th EAC regional forum on NTBs,” said Babigumira.

According to PSF, the draft law on NTBs as presented in 2013 provided for five steps to be followed by partner states in the process of eliminating barriers, including a clause that allowed aggrieved parties to drag partner states to the EAC Court of Justice in case of procrastination.

However, the final law that has been assented to by Tanzania has only three steps, two were scrapped including the clause that would see countries that failed to deal with NTBs, dragged to court by aggrieved members.

The final law only allows for ‘mutual agreement between the concerned parties’ a clause seen as too weak on partner states that drag their legs on removing trade barriers.

"It also doesn’t emphasize the role of the EAC Trade Remedies Committee. It only says the council shall consider the matter and issue a directive…or refer the matter to the EAC trade remedies committee,” Babigumira said.

Ironically, the name Babigumira means ‘to tolerate’ but the private sector leadership says the exclusions are too crucial to ignore and could see Rwanda delaying to assent to the law until a remedy is found.

Get to work

The Chairman of the East African Business Council, Dennis Karera, challenged the regional legislative body to get tough on the subject of Non Tariff Barriers.

"You clear four NTBs today, three are created next week, we need to get to work by walking the talk,” he said.

Karera also called for stronger laws to protect the region’s nascent industries from cheaper imports from outside East Africa.

"Cheap imports of garments from China have killed the region’s formerly booming textile industry, we need to get more protective and tougher regarding rules of origin,” Karera added.

Karera also revealed that some partner states are using standards as a tool to fight competition within the region, this he said should be dealt with by EALA.

More fire was added by Fred Sseka, the chairman of Rwanda Association of Forwarding and Clearing agents.

"Shipping agents at the ports require us to pay up to US$2000 as a container cash deposit, if you have ten containers, that is US$20,000; this is a major constraint to business,” he lamented calling on EALA to push members to accept insurance guarantees instead of cash.

However, most shipping agents are private companies and governments may not have direct control over the way they do business.

Commitment

Literally, every speech received applause but only one by Minister Valentine Rugwabiza, got both applause and a standing ovation; each of her points were punctuated by feet stomping from the audience and when she was done, the room rose in honour.

"What we commit to do, we must do and what we fail to do, we must seek accountability,” Rugwabiza said, in context of the nearing December 2015 deadline by which partners committed to have implemented the Common Market Protocol.

"We have not done well as a region, regarding the freedom of movement of professionals, partner states still have barriers in place, we must act to allow for all freedoms,” she said.

The Minister revealed that in the last three years alone, Rwanda had issued 15,000 free working permits to East Africans seeking to work in the country. But observers say, the same can’t be said of other partner states.

Rugwabiza also challenged the private sector to get serious on value addition as the only way of countering the alleged ‘cheap imports.’ She however condemned countries that are using standards as a weapon to stifle competition in the region.

"We need more informal platforms such as this dinner where the private sector can freely interact with our regional legislators to deliberate on issues,” she said.

The final remarks were by EALA Speaker Dan Kidega who said they had buried the recent turmoil that engulfed the house and were committed to ‘death’ to serve East Africans.

"It’s easier for a hen to eat omelet because all it has to do is lay the egg and prepare one; but for a pig to eat bacon, it must die first, which calls for a lot of commitment. We are that pigeon and we are committed,” said Kidega.