EAC launches common market negotiations

A three-day introductory workshop for the high level task force of negotiators of the East African Community Common Market has opened at the Imperial Resort Beach Hotel Entebbe, Uganda. The workshop is being attended by over 70 participants. Among them, senior government officials and experts from the East African Community (EAC) partner states. The states include Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi- and the EAC Secretariat. Eriya Kategaya, Uganda’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of East African Community Affairs opened the meeting. He is also the chairperson of the East African Community Council of Ministers. Kategaya said the workshop was being held at a time of high expectations by the East African people on tangible benefits of the community. He said the ongoing implementation of the Customs Union has enhanced free movement of goods and services and resulted in increased volumes of trade within and amongst the partner states. He said the common market with its key planks of facilitation of free movement of labour, capital and the right of establishment, would further promote increased productivity. Other benefits include wealth creation, competitiveness, enhance the entrepreneurial capacity of the private sector and lead to better standards of living for East Africans. Kategaya said that some of the issues in the Common Market negotiations could be considered sensitive, hence the negotiations should be handled in a candid, technical and professional manner, adopting a spirit of give and take and always focusing on the greater collective East African interests. He said the experience and trust that the EAC has gained and engendered over the years, during the negotiations of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community and the East African Customs Union would be useful. Kategaya said the membership of the High Level Task Force should be consistent throughout the negotiation process so that there would be focus and continuity in the process and timely delivery of EAC common Market Protocol. Addressing the opening of the workshop, the Deputy Secretary General (Projects and Programme), EAC, Amb. Julius Onen said the workshop would enable the participants to get acquainted with one another and with the issues involved in the EAC Common Market. Amb. Onen said that, following the establishment of the EAC Customs Union in 2005, the establishment of the Common Market was the next most important stage in the East African integration process. He urged the participants/ negotiators to apply themselves diligently towards the conclusion of the Common Market Protocol by December 2008 as directed by the EAC Summit. Amb. Onen reviewed the current status of the EAC integration process noting that most of the issues involved in the Common Market were already contained in the various decisions of the EAC Council of Ministers; what now remains is to consolidate them into the EAC Common Market Protocol, he said. During the three-day introductory workshop, the participants will be introduced to lessons from other economic groups especially those that have attained a common market and to the programmes and modalities for the negotiation process itself. Ends