The East African Community (EAC) Common Market negotiators have requested the Secretariat for updates on other regional programmes and protocols.

This is intended to speed-up the harmonisation of policies in the next round of talks of the regional Common Market which seeks to allow free movement of goods, persons and service by 2010.

This follows the High Level Task Force’s (HLTF) request for progress made in the on-going studies on the evaluation of the EAC Customs Union and harmonisation of the education systems.

According to Prudence Sebahizi, Rwanda’s Chief Negotiator, the updates will be used as references to facilitate the negotiations.

He said that the reports will highlight hurdles in implementation and how they are being addressed, explaining, "We will relate the efforts with the current state of negotiations.”

Citing an example of the Customs Union, Sebahizi who is also the Executive Secretary of Rwanda’s Regional Integration Committee said the most of the issues requested are directly related to the Common Market protocol.

The Customs Union is a free trade area with a common external tariff, where EAC partner States set up a common external trade policy. It’s a way of boosting trade, without diverting trade between the member countries.

Having successfully implemented the protocol, the regional bloc believed it was ready to proceed towards the establishment of a regional common market.

It was seen as a first step towards the establishment of a common market and single currency modelled on the European Union (EU) format.

Sebahizi said that the parties requested the establishment of a regional development fund which is fundamental to the EAC Common Market protocol.

He explained, "The development fund is important is addressing challenges met by partner states in their regional endeavours.”

Decent talks held in Rubavu, Rwanda reached an amicable agreement on new issues while agreeing on the way forward in resolving further outstanding issues at the subsequent scheduled meetings.

The new issues include among others common social, environmental management, and Research and technology policies.

Three more round talks are scheduled for next year, with the first one in January. The negotiations are supposed to conclude by March 2009.

If the common market takes off as planned, it will be the second such in the world after the EU.

EAC partner States also plan to have a monetary union once the common market is in place, and a regional political federation with a common President and parliament by 2013.

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