EAC Ministers Endorse Common Market Protocol

David Muwanga (Busiweek)-- Ministers from the five member states of the East African Community (EAC) have signed the Common Market Protocol paving way for free movement of goods, labour and services. However, the protocol will have to undergo fine-tuning by the attorneys general of the member states after which it will go to the EAC council for approval and then signed by the heads of states on November 20.

The ministerial signing in Kampala came after four days of negotiations that were expected to have ended on September 24 but ended a day later due to some issues that had to be ironed out. The first to sign was the Kenyan minister for East African Community (EAC) Amason Kingi, followed by the Ugandan minister of East African Community Affairs (EACA) Eriya Ketagaya and the Burundi minister for East African Cooperation (EAC) Hafsa Mossi. The Rwandan minister of Justice and Attorney General Tharcisse Karugarama and the Tanzanian minister for East African Cooperation (EAC) Diodorus Kamala followed her.

A day before the signing, the permanent secretaries from the ministries of the East African Community discussed, adopted and signed the draft protocol that was later to be endorsed by the EAC ministers. Those who signed included Uganda’s Permanent Secretary Edith Mwanje, David S.O Nalo, CBS of Kenya, Stergomena Tax of Tanzania, Ambassador Jean Rigi of Burundi and Rwanda’s Permanent Secretary for the ministry of trade Antoine Ruvebana.

This was followed by a one day meeting on Friday of the multi-sectoral council meeting that was attended by the EAC ministers and permanent secretaries that discussed and adopted the draft protocol that was later signed by the ministers. Ugandan minister for East African Community Affairs Eriya Kategaya, who opened the meeting, said the community is at a stage where cooperation is upgrading to a level of a common market with the objective of widening and deepening cooperation in the region.

‘East Africans will enjoy free movement of goods, of persons, of labour, capital, services and a right of establishment and residence under the Common Market,’ he said. He said in today’s world there is no country that can go alone and succeed. ‘As a result our economies are weak when they act as individual’s, he said. ‘When the EAC is in place with a population of 120 million people, it will attract investments and the people will enjoy the multiplier effects that will come with it,’ Kategaya said. Hewarned that East African integration would not be achieved instantly. ‘The process grows better and stronger with time,’ he said.

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