EAC boss proposes establishment of committee to solve regional trade disputes

The East African Community (EAC) Secretary General, Peter Mathuki, has proposed to President Yoweri Museveni the establishment of a committee that will resolve all the trade disputes among the member countries.

He said the East African Community Secretariat wants to remove all the trade barriers in the region. Mathuki was in Uganda meeting, President Museveni.

Despite the EAC having a common market in place, the bloc continues to be troubled by Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) that impede the free movement of goods and services provided by East Africans.

President Museveni called for the removal of such bottlenecks to enable the free movement of goods and services that meet the rules of origin.

“The rules of origin must be observed. As long as the commodity is made in East Africa, it should be allowed to access the market freely,” the president said.

Speaking in Kampala at the ceremony to celebrate Uganda’s 60th independence, the President of Kenya, William Ruto, asked President Museveni in his capacity as their elder to lead the erasing of the borders that continue to divide East Africa as a people.

“Your Excellency, as our elder, President Museveni, you have the challenge to lead on ensuring that we bring down the boundaries, borders and barriers so that we can have a borderless East African Community,” Ruto said.

“It is our place as leaders and citizens of the East African Region to work together so that we can transform our borders which today stand as barriers and convert them into bridges so that goods and services can move across this East Africa without impediments,” he added.

In the meeting with Mathuki, President Museveni expressed optimism that in future, East Africa will have a very strong economy that imports less from outside the region. He observed that once the economies are healthy there will be no need to import.