Regional governments have been urged to invest in capacity building of technocrats involved in international trade negotiations to enhance their skills and ensure they bargain for deals that will benefit citizens. 

According to Henry Kimera of Consumer Food Education Trust (Uganda), with commercial oil and gas deposits being confirmed in almost all the six East African Community (EAC) countries, government must sharpen negotiation skills of technocrats so that they are able to negotiate better deals to ensure maximum benefit for countries. Kimera added that most regional technocrats negotiate from a point of weakness since they are not well-versed with international trade negotiation and other economic agreements, including oil deals. 

He was speaking during a two-day regional conference on how EAC can achieve structural transformation and sustainable development that was organised by Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI-Uganda) in Kampala last week. 

The conference, under the theme "Achieving Structural Transformation in the context of Regional Integration and the EU-EAC EPA: Implications and way forward for the EAC” attracted government officials and the private sector players, as well as East African Legislative Assembly MPs, and academia from across the region. 

Commenting on the EPAs, Kimera said EAC governments alone cannot guarantee the success of the deals, the reason why other stakeholders should be involved in the negotiation process. 

"We are the consumers, we work with the citizens, and know what’s best for them and the challenges they face mostly. This is why the signing and the ratification of this deal would have been meaningful and more beneficial if they involved all the parties.” He said it was essential for private and concerned public institutions to participate in the EPAs negotiations so that they understand and are able to explain it to the ordinary people, who are major beneficiaries, and how they will gain from the market created by the deal.

In 2014, the EAC and European Union concluded the negotiations for the EPAs after nearly 12 years. Currently, the EPAs are being ratified by regional states, with the final deal signing scheduled to take place in the first week of August. However, various regional stakeholders are still skeptical on the benefits, especially since they were not involved in the process. 

The objectives of the EPAs include bringing about sustainable development of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, facilitation of ACPs smooth and gradual integration into the world economy, contributing to eradication of poverty, enhancing the production and supply capacity, fostering the structural transformation and diversification of the economies, and support of regional integration initiatives, among others.

Geoffrey Idelphonce Mwambe, the director for trade, investment and productive sectors at Tanzania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Co-operation, argued that these objectives would be realised if EAC states involved all the stakeholders in the negotiation process.

"The EPA objectives can be realised if EAC governments work with other stakeholders to advance the social and economic needs of ordinary people in the region. I am confident that we can achieve more, including structural transformation and sustainable development, if governments worked with all stakeholders,” he said.

Most of the participants at the conference said the EAC bloc may not gain much from the EPAs, arguing that the region still faces challenges of low industrialisation and export of primary products, besides the limited forward and backward linkages in the economy, which affects the bloc’s competitiveness. 

However, Peace Basemera, a trade negotiation and cooperation specialist at the ministry of trade and industry, said Rwanda has tried to engage different stakeholders in the EPAs process, adding that the country conducted campaigns to create more awareness about the deal.

"We have been working closely with stakeholders, including the Private Sector Federation and civil society organisations, to raise awareness about the opportunities presented by EPAs,” she said.

Basemera said the challenges in the process would be addressed with time. "The only challenge now would be countries failing to invest in building their capacities to ensure that when the agreement is implemented we are able to benefit,” she added.