EAC launches Common Market Score Card 2014 in Dar es Salaam

The East African Common Market Score Card has revealed that the United Republic of Tanzania is the most active in removing Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) once identified, a fact that records a potential source of peer learning for other Partner States. This was revealed yesterday during the dissemination Workshop to launch the East African Common Market Score Card at New Africa Hotel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

While addressing participants, the Lead Economist and Sector Leader Finance and Private Sector Development Africa Region of the World Bank, Mr. Andrea Dall’Olio said that in the area of goods, although Tanzania and Kenya has the highest number of NTBs being reported by other Partner States, the East African Common Market Score Card notes that Tanzania is most active in removing them once identified.

He said that the value of trade between the Partner States has more than doubled after the Customs Union became fully fledged in 2010, adding that as Partner States continue to remove barriers between the economies, there is the need to put in place good rules that are transparent and accessible to all.

“Domestic laws and regulations that restrict enjoyment of the rights and freedoms under the Protocol require reforms” he stressed.

The East African Common Market Score Card to measures commitment by EAC Partner States to enable free cross-border movement of capital, services and goods provides the analysis basing on the review of 683 laws and regulations relevant to the Common Market along with key legal notices, reports and trade statistics.

Presenting to the delegates on the Common Market Score Card, the Coordinator for EAC Common Market Diagnostics at the World Bank Group, Mr. Alfred Ombudo K, Ombudo said that the score card has identified a number of laws that are in conformity to the Community laws and showed differing scores in areas of the free movement of goods, services and capital that are pillars of the Common Market Protocol.

He has stressed that regarding on the free movement of services, the general observation is that each Partner State has laws that contradicts Common Market Protocol rules and regulations in order to serve the interests of their citizens.

The Score Card only measures the compliance of national laws to commitments under the Protocol and it does not measure compliance of bi-lateral agreements entered into by the Partner States to the Protocol.

On behalf of the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of East African Cooperation, Dr. Abdulla Makame urged the Partner States to focus on the implementation of the EAC Railway Master Plan that will come up as solution for most emerging Non-Tariff Barriers as revealed by the score card especially on Free Movement of Goods under the Common Market.