The Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC), Dr. Richard Sezibera, has urged EAC partner countries to fully eliminate Non Tariff Barriers in order to allow full operation of Customs Union.

He made the call, on Thursday, while Addressing the EAC Sectoral Council of Ministers on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment in Arusha, Tanzania.

The Council deliberated on the pre-budget consultations of the Ministers of Finance, and considered reports of the Permanent Secretaries, among other businesses.

"There are significant and disturbing incidents of the application of Non Tariff Barriers as well as non-uniform application of the common external tariff that continue to militate against the smooth operations of the Customs Union,” he said in a statement.

Sezibera noted that although the EAC Customs Union entered into full operations with application of zero internal tariffs in January 2010, its actualization remains incomplete.

"We are therefore not yet out of the woods and remain seized of the challenge to realize a fully consolidated EAC Customs Union,” the Secretary General asserted.

He told the meeting that the inadequacies in the Customs Union were impinging on prospects of the EAC Common Market which he said is yet to make its impact because "the effective implementation of the Common Market depends very much on the existence of a well functioning Customs Union.”

The Secretary General added that the region has an important task ahead to eliminate Non Tariff Barriers during the next fiscal year in order to make the Customs Union and Common Market fully operational and working for the ordinary citizens of East Africa as well as the business community.

At the same meeting, the ministers agreed that goods exported from Uganda produced by industries enjoying the remission should attract the EAC Common External Tariff (CET) and that this should apply to all goods that enjoy duty remission exported by Partner States.

Ends