East African Business Week (Kampala)
By Kenan Kalagho, 3 September 2012
.jpg)
Dar es Salaam — The East African Business
Council (EABC) has stressed the need for the East African Community
(EAC) to harmonize their stand with respect to Economic Partnership
Agreements (EPAs).
Speaking during the Regional Private Sector CEO Forum that was organized in partnership with East African Business Council and Trade Mark East Africa in Dar es Salaam last week, the Chairman of East African Business Council Mr. Felix Mosha said EAC states must make their stand on EPAs uniform.
Mosha said the government of Tanzania is aware that the region is capable of harmonising EPAs to reach a common goal of safeguarding EA's interests. He said according to Tanzania, EPAs were not implementable and therefore not fit for the region.
The EPA agreements are fully reciprocal trade arrangements between EU and ACP countries that commenced in 2002 to replace the previous non reciprocal, preferential trade access of ACP countries to EU markets under the various Lome convention and the Cotonou agreements.
"The Community needs to come together and safeguard the interests of the region for the benefit of the people within the region" Mosha said.
Things in the EAC region are not moving as expected because most of the people in the region tend to look back from where the train is coming from instead of moving forward to where the train is headed," he noted.
"When goods move from COMESA to Tanzania, how do, we deal with such goods especially if a particular country is not a member of such a bloc?" he queried and added "this is a point that needs to be worked on so that it doesn't become an obstacle in the integration"
He underscored the need to improve both ICT connectivity within the region and infrastructure saying such developments will reduce haulage time thereby creating a business environment in the region to be more effective.
EAC Secretary General Ambassador Richard Sezibera pointed out that EPA agreements provided a chance for the region to negotiate the terms of trade with Europe something that wasn't possible in the 19th century.
"Europe has always traded with us out of our own interest, sometimes without our will. Now for the first time the EAC has a chance to say this is the way we want the trade between you and us," Sezibera said.
According to him EPA negotiations are being read by partner states and the EA region is negotiating as one entity and the region only negotiates where there is a common position for the member states.
Speaking during the Regional Private Sector CEO Forum that was organized in partnership with East African Business Council and Trade Mark East Africa in Dar es Salaam last week, the Chairman of East African Business Council Mr. Felix Mosha said EAC states must make their stand on EPAs uniform.
Mosha said the government of Tanzania is aware that the region is capable of harmonising EPAs to reach a common goal of safeguarding EA's interests. He said according to Tanzania, EPAs were not implementable and therefore not fit for the region.
The EPA agreements are fully reciprocal trade arrangements between EU and ACP countries that commenced in 2002 to replace the previous non reciprocal, preferential trade access of ACP countries to EU markets under the various Lome convention and the Cotonou agreements.
"The Community needs to come together and safeguard the interests of the region for the benefit of the people within the region" Mosha said.
Things in the EAC region are not moving as expected because most of the people in the region tend to look back from where the train is coming from instead of moving forward to where the train is headed," he noted.
"When goods move from COMESA to Tanzania, how do, we deal with such goods especially if a particular country is not a member of such a bloc?" he queried and added "this is a point that needs to be worked on so that it doesn't become an obstacle in the integration"
He underscored the need to improve both ICT connectivity within the region and infrastructure saying such developments will reduce haulage time thereby creating a business environment in the region to be more effective.
EAC Secretary General Ambassador Richard Sezibera pointed out that EPA agreements provided a chance for the region to negotiate the terms of trade with Europe something that wasn't possible in the 19th century.
"Europe has always traded with us out of our own interest, sometimes without our will. Now for the first time the EAC has a chance to say this is the way we want the trade between you and us," Sezibera said.
According to him EPA negotiations are being read by partner states and the EA region is negotiating as one entity and the region only negotiates where there is a common position for the member states.
No comments:
Post a Comment