The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has asked partner states to speed up removal of Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) to create a conducive business environment in the region.
Rwanda has always been pushing for the removal of such non tariff Barriers to enable quick flow of goods into the country. Rwanda nearly imports its goods from EAC member states.
Chairperson of the Committee on Communications, Trade and Investments, Dr James Ndahiro, noted that NTBs had by and large created a negative impact on trade expansion efforts in the region.
“The NTB issue has necessitated the need for inculcating a common, comprehensive and holistic approach for the elimination of NTBs,” noted Ndahiro when presenting latest findings of a recent workshop report on NTBs held in Kigali, Rwanda, at the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) opening session in Arusha on Tuesday.
This is the fifth and final two-week Assembly sitting before a new (third) Parliament is sworn in on June 5. The report points to a number of NTBs facing the business community in the region including congestion in issuing bonds, weighbridges especially in the northern and central corridors, lack of implementation of cargo tracking systems limiting movement of goods and corruption affecting major players at the border points.
Kenya is the current chair of the EAC Summit of Heads of State. Tanzania, he said, is yet to decide how many bridges to have, but Kenya has decided to have two.
Leave a Reply