Faridah N Kulumba
Africa-Press-Tanzania On 10 May 2022, the President of Tanzania Samia Suluhu Hassan arrived at Entebbe airport for a two-day State visit at the invitation of Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. According to Uganda’s foreign affairs ministry, the visit was meant to further strengthen the excellent historical and fraternal relations between the two nations.
First Official visits
This was President Samia’s third visit to Uganda since she was sworn as the president of Tanzania on 19th March 2021, after the sudden death of her predecessor John Pombe Magufuli. In April last year, President Samia made her first state visit to Uganda for talks that culminated in the signing of the oil agreement. And on 12 May 2021, President Samia was among the 11 heads of state who witnessed the swearing-in of President Museveni for a sixth term.
Strengthening relations
Tanzania’s Director of Presidential Communications Zuhura Yunus informed that the visit was meant to strengthen relations and socio-economic cooperation. The two heads of states held a tete-a-tete to review areas of cooperation for the benefit of the two neighbouring countries. Mrs Samia also addressed business executives, policymakers, the private sector and other high-level government officials at a business dialogue with the view of abolishing tariff and nontariff barriers that frustrate the flow of business and employment opportunities in populations of the two nations.
Softening road toll
During the meeting between the two heads of state, Tanzania agreed to cut a road toll by about 71 per cent on the Uganda-bound cargo trucks as part of the consensus reached. From mid-2021, the Tanzanian government charged USD500 on Ugandan cargo trucks as fees collected for road repairs and maintenance. This was protested by Uganda and field a complaint with the East African Community (EAC) Council of Ministers accusing Tanzania of breaching the Common Market Protocol by Imposing different road user charges on partner states in the same trading bloc.
New Levy
In the next financial year which will kick off this July, Tanzania will charge USD10 per 100km on the cargo trucks plying the 1,485km from the border between the two countries to the Dar es Salaam route. The USD10 translates into about USD144 for the distance, down from USD500. While Dodoma had increased the levy on Uganda-bound cargo trucks, it maintained that of 152 charged on Rwanda-bound cargo trucks. Tanzania serves as a gateway to the sea to the landlocked Uganda Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Malawi, mainly through the Dar es Salaam port.
Second chance
President Samia’s administration announced as they will resume buying sugar from Uganda, signalling a relaxation of one of the trade disputes that has lasted close to three years. According to a joint communique released after the meeting between the two leaders, Uganda will supply 10,000 tonnes of sugar to fill a production gap in Tanzania.
Sugar ban spark
In 2019, Tanzania banned sugar from Uganda saying the imports originated from third-party countries. Uganda has over the years blamed Tanzania for instituting several non-tariff barriers that have thwarted seamless trade between the two nations. These include restrictions on sugar, milk and movement on Ugandan trucks.
ARVs Project
Tanzania agreed to start importing ant-retroviral (ARVs) drugs from Uganda in the fight against HIV-Aids. According to United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) report, there are 1.7 million people living with HIV in Tanzania as of 2019. HIV prevalence in Tanzania has steadily declined over the past decades from 7 per cent in 2003 to 4.6 per cent in 2018 in adults 15-49 years. The two countries also signed an agreement for collaboration on the development of vaccines.
The MoUs
President Samia and her host President Museveni witnessed the signing of two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on the field of Development of the 4ooKV Masaka-Mutukula-Kyaka-Nyakanazi-Mwanza electricity transmission line and another on the Defence and Security Cooperation.
They also inked a separate MoU to provide security to the proposed 1,443km East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) that will transport Uganda’s crude oil from the oil fields in mid-western Uganda to the international market via Tanzania’s Indian Ocean Tanga Port.
Tanzania and Uganda enjoy warm and cordial historical bilateral relations dating back to the 1960s, and recent Bank of Uganda statistics showed that the latter was Uganda’s biggest source of imports in the region valued at USD149 million overtaking Kenya which hauled in a paltry USD71million.
