Africa-Press – Tanzania. EAC Ministers in charge of Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment have rooted for the facilitation of regional industries by adopting policies that are favorable to support their production.
The ministers, who converged here for the 40th Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment (SCTIFI) recently, noted that the regional economic bloc had the potential to produce its own products particularly in the area of agro processing.
The ministers and other experts opined that the current global trade disruptions due to the crisis in Ukraine and Russia and lessons learnt from the Covid pandemic should be a starting point for regional industrialisation.
During the meeting, the ministers also considered proposed Common External Tariff (CET) rates of 30, 33 and 35 per cent respectively and eventually adopted the 35 as the fourth band based on promoting regional production capacity, industrialisation and value chain development; Improving consumer welfare; protect revenues and expand regional trade.
The move would also create new opportunities in the informal sector; promote regional food security and rural development while also protecting and safeguarding nascent industries.
The ministers further decided that implementation of the reviewed EAC CET should start from July 1.
It was further agreed that there should be flexibility in application of the revised CET particularly on products currently affected by the current global economic realities.
In that regard, Partner States were directed to identify products which are affected by the current global trade disruptions for consideration during the Pre-Budget Consultations meeting which were held in May 9 to 13 this year.
On the status of rolling out customs regimes under Single Customs Territory (SCT), the meeting was informed that direct exports via sea and land borders, transfer of intra trade goods and all imports were all cleared under the SCT, while transit, indirect: and temporary exports are still pending clearance under the same.
It was however, noted that despite various bilateral engagements between Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), transmission of intra-region transfers messages to support movement of goods from Tanzania to Kenya still remains a challenge which has stalled clearance of such transfers under SCT procedures.
The Sectoral Committee on Customs directed the Secretariat to compile all long-standing commitments affecting the smooth implementation of the Single Customs Territory.
The Secretariat was further directed to convene a meeting of the Commissioners General to consider and address the long-standing issues by September 2022.
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