{"id":20736,"date":"2021-01-12T21:40:05","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T21:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/kenya\/?p=20736"},"modified":"2021-01-12T21:40:05","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T21:40:05","slug":"covid-19-lack-of-harmonised-testing-rates-affect-eac-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-lack-of-harmonised-testing-rates-affect-eac-businesses","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: Lack of harmonised testing rates affect EAC businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>AfricaPress-Kenya:<\/strong> The East African Business Council (EABC) is urging for lowering and harmonization of COVID-19 related charges in the East African Community, in a bid to ease the cost of doing business and boost intra-EAC trade.<\/p>\n<p>This is set to support businesses to be more resilient and rebound amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, Covid-19 tests are priced differently in each EAC Partner States, while containment measures are varied. For instance; Tanzania and Burundi are now charging a standard rate of $100 for both nationals and foreigners while the other Partner States&#8217; charges vary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe EAC Secretariat should fast track regional coordination and harmonisation of measures on COVID-19 for economic resilience and growth of the EAC bloc,\u201d said Dr. Mathuki, CEO EABC.<\/p>\n<p>Dr.Mathuki also called for the establishment of a common quarantine period in the region and fast-tracking of the waiting time for Covid-19 test results. The lack of harmonisation of Covid-19 testing rates in accredited laboratories and uncoordinated waiting time for the test results is disrupting cross-border trade.COVID-19 related Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) continue to hinder cross-border trade due to different measures on COVID-19 in the region.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-article-page-desktop my-2\">\n<div align=\"center\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1464965995785-0\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As of October 2020, the World Bank predicted growth in Sub-Saharan Africa to fall to-3.3 percent in 2020, driven by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 global pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Different preventive and restrictive measures undertaken by EAC Partner States to control the spread of COVID-19 have significantly slowed down trade, movement of persons and integration.<\/p>\n<p>The trickle-down effects of these measures have also been felt across affiliated industries and the rest of the economy.<\/p>\n<p>Dr.Mathuki noted that reduction and harmonization of COVID-19 related NTBs will also enable businesses to tap into the opportunities availed by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfCFTA prioritizes addressing challenges in trade policy, productive capacity, hard and soft infrastructure, trade information and market integration which are critical for doing business in the continent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AfricaPress-Kenya: The East African Business Council (EABC) is urging for lowering and harmonization of COVID-19 related charges in the East African Community, in a bid to ease the cost of doing business and boost intra-EAC trade. This is set to support businesses to be more resilient and rebound amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, Covid-19 tests [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":20729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,2111,5,8],"tags":[1539,7121,1031],"class_list":["post-20736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-coronavirus-in-kenya","category-economy","category-homepage-english","tag-covid-19","tag-east-africa-community","tag-world-bank"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Covid-19: Lack of harmonised testing rates affect EAC businesses - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The East African Business Council (EABC) is urging for lowering and harmonization of COVID-19 related charges in the East African Community,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-lack-of-harmonised-testing-rates-affect-eac-businesses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Covid-19: Lack of harmonised testing rates affect EAC businesses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The East African Business Council (EABC) is urging for lowering and harmonization of COVID-19 related charges in the East African Community,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-lack-of-harmonised-testing-rates-affect-eac-businesses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-12T21:40:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/01\/covid19_lack_of_ha5ffd590f83a1d.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"682\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"332\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-lack-of-harmonised-testing-rates-affect-eac-businesses#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-lack-of-harmonised-testing-rates-affect-eac-businesses\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Covid-19: Lack of harmonised testing rates affect EAC businesses\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-12T21:40:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-lack-of-harmonised-testing-rates-affect-eac-businesses\"},\"wordCount\":325,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-lack-of-harmonised-testing-rates-affect-eac-businesses#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/01\/covid19_lack_of_ha5ffd590f83a1d.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"COVID-19\",\"East Africa Community\",\"World Bank\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Coronavirus in kenya\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-lack-of-harmonised-testing-rates-affect-eac-businesses#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-lack-of-harmonised-testing-rates-affect-eac-businesses\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-lack-of-harmonised-testing-rates-affect-eac-businesses\",\"name\":\"Covid-19: Lack of harmonised testing rates affect EAC businesses - 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