Posted on April, 8, 2019 at 09:36 am
Fred Aminga - MediaMax Network
Kenya has secured commitment from East African Community (EAC) member states to ensure non-tarriff barriers (NTBs) to trade are resolved faster to deepen regional integration.
East African Community and Regional Development Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed said under these new plans, persistent NTBs will be addressed urgently to help manufacturers to access the 150 million people in the region.
Speaking during the just ended Changamsha festival at the Kasarani organised by Kenya Association of Manufacturers to showcase locally manufactured goods, Mohamed said the government is coming up with an approach that will permanently cure bottlenecks seen in the past.
“Towards this, EAC Partner States have been pursing a review of the Common External Tarrif that regulates trade, and this exercise is expected to conclude by end of this year”, he said.
Mohamed said the Ministry regularly coordinates sessions with its counterparts in the region as a way of escalating issues that hinder trade and is making progress in resolving them as they arise. “We have seen a number of issues affecting goods produced by local manufacturers in the recent past at various border points.
As a result of this, we have secured commitment from member states to ensure these are resolved quickly as a way of fostering integration,” he added. EAC has deepened people-to-people integration and remains the most integrated bloc on the continent.
Source: MediaMax Network