The Minister for East African Cooperation Hon. Samuel Sitta has said that
Tanzania is not a stumbling block to East African Community’s (EAC)
integration process as some people claim.
He said Tanzania is perceived as a slow member in the EAC because of its
attitude of being careful and serious when it comes to dealing with all
matters of EAC regional integration.
Responding to questions in the Parliament on Thursday May 22nd, Minister
Sitta said the cautious approach deployed by Tanzania in the EAC was due to
the fact that the country still has bad memories of the collapse of the
former EAC in 1977.
“Tanzania as an important member of EAC has no intention of being a
stumbling block to the integration process. We want to be sure with
everything we do so that we don’t repeat the same mistake,†the minister
said
Minister Sitta said after the collapse of the first EAC Tanzania lost many
things including properties, businesses and relationship with member states
worsened to the extent that the border with Kenya was closed.
He said he believes that the approach used by Tanzania is good and
beneficial not only to Tanzania but to the entire EAC bloc.
Minister Sitta allayed fears that the tri-lateral meetings by Kenya, Rwanda
and Uganda were not something to be worried about as the three countries
only meet for projects that involves the Northern Corridor.
Minister Sitta was responding to the questions from several members of
Parliament after tabling the 2014/2015 budget estimates on 22ndMay, 2014.
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*Tanzania speed-up elimination of NTBs to cut down cost of doing business*
In a bid to speed-up elimination of Non-Tariff Barriers, Tanzania has
prepared a master plan for reduction in inspection centres and Police road
blocks in the Central Corridor which stretches from Dar es Salaam to Rusumo
(Rwanda).
In the master plan, the inspection centres will be reduced from the current
15 to just three.
The Minister for East African Cooperation Hon. Samuel Sitta said in the
parliament recently that centres will only remain at Vigwaza (Coast
Region), Manyoni (Singida) and Nyakanazi (Kagera).
Hon. Sitta said under the new arrangement, all inspection activities will
be done at one place which includes weighing, customs, police and any other
formalities.
As of March, 2014, a total number of 16 out of the 33 outstanding Non
Tariff Barriers (NTBs) were eliminated. Some of the eliminated NTBs include
congestion at the port of Dar es salaam; double payment of handling charges
at the ICDs and Dar Es Salaam port and Uganda restricting imports of
mosquito nets produced by A to Z factory located in Arusha.
Other NTBs eliminated include restriction of imports of beer from Burundi
by Tanzania; and harassment of Tanzanian businessmen by Kenyan Immigration
Officials at Namanga Border Post.
Tanzania has been named as the leading country in the elimination of Non
Tariff Barriers in the Community by the World Bank Group on its study on
the Status of Implementation of East African Community Common Market
Protocol which was done in collaboration with the EAC Secretariat.
At the regional level, in the year 2013/2014, Partner States prepared the
East African Community Non-Tariff Barriers Elimination Bill, 2013. The Bill
has been referred to the Sectoral Council on Legal and Judicial Affairs for
legal inputs.
“Once enacted, this legislation will establish a legally binding mechanism
on the elimination of Non-Tariff Barriers in the Community,†Minister Sitta
said