Posted on January, 6, 2017 at 08:47 am
The EAC Heads of State Summit, earlier scheduled for this week, has been pushed to next month after ministers failed to agree on the issues to be ratified by the highest organ of the bloc.
A deal on the longstanding Economic Partnership Agreement with the 27-member European Union is one of the matters the Council of Ministers, the second highest organ of the EAC, has not finalised.
East African Affairs Principal Secretary Betty Maina yesterday said the summit will take place in February because the council has not finished its business.
“The business of the council must be concluded before the summit is held. By the beginning of the year, the meetings leading to the summit had not fully taken place,” Maina said on the phone.
The council consists of ministers who deliberate on issues affecting member states mainly economic, political and environmental, and comes up with strategies for regional integration.
Maina said Kenya continues to engage member states on sealing the EPA deal, with talks expected to reach peak during the last ministerial meeting at the end of this month.
“The week of 23-27 (January) will be used to discuss trade-related issues at the ministerial meeting in Arusha. There is already a council proposal sent to those who have not decided,” Maina said.
“The summit will revisit the ideas and a final solution will be taken into consideration.”
Only Kenya and Rwanda have signed and ratified the EPA deal.
Tanzania has declined to sign the pact twice – in 2014 and 2016 – saying it will hurt the growth of her industries. An extraordinary summit in Dar es Salaam on September 8 last year failed to finalise a signed pact.
Tanzanian President John Magufuli, who chaired the summit, said the bloc will continue to discuss the EPA, and hopefully reach an agreement at the beginning of this year.
“We have given ourselves three months to discuss further the signing of the EPA agreement,” Magufuli said during the summit.
All the member states – Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda – must sign and ratify the agreement before it is implemented. The pact gives the region quota-free and duty-free market access to the EU.
Industry, Trade and Cooperatives Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo said even though member states have diverse views, they will patch up their differences and move together.
“We don’t want EPA to break EAC,” Kiptoo said.
Source: The Star