Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{The second Trade Policy Review (TPR) for EAC Partner States was held on 21st and 23rd November 2012 at the WTO Headquarters in Geneva.}}

The basis for the review was a report by the WTO Secretariat with Annexes containing reports prepared by the Governments of the five Partner States namely, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.

Colombia was the Chair and the People’s Republic of China was the discussant.

The TPR enabled a multilateral assessment of the effects of regional and national EAC Partner States’ trade policies on the world trading systems thereby increasing the transparency and understanding by other WTO Member countries of EAC Partner States’ trade policies and practices.

Advance written questions on EAC’s trade policies were provided by the following WTO members: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, European Union, Japan, India, Korea, Pakistan, United States, and Turkey, to which the EAC provided detailed written responses.

Reading the EAC Partner States’ opening statement on 21 November, His Excellency Dr. Tom Mboya Okeyo, Ambassador of the Republic of Kenya to the WTO highlighted the EAC achievements in the regional integration process since the first TPR in 2010 namely, the implementation of the Customs Union and the Common Market; and the negotiations towards the establishment of a Monetary Union.

He highlighted the tremendous trade, business and investment opportunities available in the EAC sector such as in ICT, finance, insurance, tourism, renewable energy, infrastructure (railway, roads and ports), as well as in agro-processing and mining.

Statements were also made by the Discussant and other WTO Members in which they commended the EAC integration efforts.

They also asked some questions on areas such as removal of NTBs; progress in the Tripartite negotiations of the COMESA-EAC-SADC FTA; harmonization of sectoral policies in key sectors such as agriculture, mining, services, and steps being undertaken to align IPR regime with international norms and effective implementation of their international obligations.

On 23 November 2012, Hon. Dr. William M. Mgiwa, Minister for Finance from the United Republic of Tanzania, on behalf of the EAC Partner States, read a statement responding to issues raised by the WTO Members relating to EAC’s economic environment, trade policies and sectoral policies.

Hon. Mgimwa highlighted the macro-economic policy environment in the region and the legal and regulatory frameworks for inward investments and economic growth.

He mentioned the challenges faced by the EAC Partner States in implementing the Customs Union and Common Market Protocols, and the steps being taken to address these challenges.

On the supply-side constraints, he elaborated on the major projects in the region which includes construction of roads, initiatives underway in the energy sector, railways, ports and ICT that will further ease the cost of doing business in the EAC.

He also pointed out the ongoing efforts by the Partner States in undertaking regulatory reforms to improve the business environment.

Hon. Mgimwa provided detailed responses on the mechanisms in place for monitoring, reporting and resolving NTBs in the region, including the current development of a legally binding mechanism on the elimination of identified NTBs that will ensure that infringements arising from NTBs are removed in a timely manner.

On trade policy, detailed responses were provided on the trade facilitation initiatives underway in the region, harmonization of internal taxes, WTO notifications, trade remedies, public procurement and intellectual property rights.

The EAC also provided clarifications on sectoral policies on Agriculture, mining, energy, manufacturing and services.

In his concluding remarks, the Chairperson noted that WTO Members welcomed the EAC Partner States’ commitment to the multilateral trading system and encouraged them to continue their active participation.

He appreciated EAC Partner States’ continuous integration efforts and the vision of the process as a way to facilitate their further integration into the multilateral trading system.

He urged the EAC Partner States to take further steps to address the hurdles of poor infrastructure such as roads, rail and the high cost of energy coupled with complex administrative procedures add to the high cost of doing business and increase productivity and competitiveness in order to attract FDI.

Competition policy at the regional level may also help the business environment.

He stated that Members requested the EAC Partner States to dismantle a number of NTBs that continue to hamper trade, including intra-EAC trade, and urged them to comply with their notification obligations, particularly in the areas of SPS, TBT, and import licensing.

He highlighted some key areas for further actions or improvements, including: Tariff protection and conformity with WTO provisions; steps in the harmonization of sectors such as Agriculture, Intellectual Property Rights, and Services.

He further noted that the TPR had contributed to deepen the WTO members’ understanding of the regional, as well as national components of the trade regimes of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

{{A congolese group calling itself {‘Forces novatrices pour l’union et la solidarité} (FONUS)’, has called on Kabila’s government to resign}}.

FONUS says Kinshasa government should resign for gross “irresponsibility, incompetence and cowardice.”

The FONUS group also asked, Sunday 25 November, the President of the Republic, Joseph Kabila, to arrest Gen. Gabriel Amisi Kumba -Chief of Staff the army of the DRC that was suspended from duty since November 22.

Gen. Kumba is accused in a UN report of experts of selling weapons to armed groups operating in the eastern DRC.

On Sunday, during a press conference in Kinshasa, the FONUS Acting Secretary General, Emery Ukundji,noted that a ‘simple suspension is both inappropriate and unreliable.’

“Given the seriousness of that [selling weapons and ammunition to the rebels], the FONUS ask the Head of State to arrest him and the competent judicial authorities to hold a public trial without delay because the list of traitors is very long,” He said.

Ukundji also proposed that the M23 requests are forwarded by the President to Parliament for debate and the DRC declares a state of emergency.

{{Uganda government has recalled 2,000 former UPDF soldiers to be deployed in Somalia, under the African Union Mission to Somalia – AMISOM.}}

The announcement to recall former soldiers for deployment in Somalia comes weeks after the government threatened to withdraw its forces from all foreign countries including Somalia to consolidate internal security.

Uganda military official said Monday that the soldiers to be recalled include those who retired as UPDF soldiers and auxiliary forces. The auxiliary forces include the Local Defence Units, Amuka and Arrow Boys.

“Only those who were trained by the UPDF and fought alongside the army to defeat rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda, Allied Democratic Forces in Rwenzori region and cattle rustlers in Karamoja region,” a military source said.

Government further says the former fighters would be re-trained before being deployed in Somalia to replace Uganda Battle Group 9.

However, the military says that deserters and those who were dismissed with disgrace would not be considered.

In March, Uganda deployed up to 1,700 reservists in Somalia and their nine-month contract expires in January next year.

{{Tanzania is ready to send troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo to fight M23 rebels who are making advances to the capital Kinshasa after capturing several key towns, including eastern city of Goma.}}

Tanzania’s minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr Bernard Membe, said yesterday that the country would, however, only send its troops if the UN headquarters in New York immediately mandate the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) to deploy troops in DRC to fight the anti-government rebels.

Presidents from the Great Lakes Region are meeting in Kampala today (Friday) for a crisis summit during which they will discuss the deteriorating situation in eastern DRC where the rebels have captured Goma, a nearby town of Sake which lies 20km south of Goma and vowed to press on with their offensive to take South Kivu provincial capital of Bukavu which lies 300km to the south of Goma.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Mr Membe said leaders within the region under their chairman Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni have called a crisis summit to discuss the matter and see how they could arrest the situation in eastern Congo before it gets out of hand.

The minister said the UN is currently using Chapter 6 of its resolutions, which basically allows peacekeeping and not peace enforcement.

In peace enforcement the UN troops would, if need be, use force to keep peace.

Presently, there over 17,000 troops under the UN who are not doing anything to protect the Congolese people and instead, they are only “observing things”.

{{The 26th meeting of the EAC Council of Ministers is underway at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.}}

The Council of Ministers meeting, held through the sessions of Senior Officials (19-21 November); the session of the Co-ordination Committee i.e. Permanent Secretaries (22-25 November); will climax with the Ministerial session on Monday 26 November 2012.

The Council of Ministers meeting is a precursor to several activities that will be involving the EAC Heads of State at the end of this month including the official opening of the new EAC headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, official launch of the Arusha-Namanga-Athi River road (both events slated for Wednesday 28 November).

And a dedicated Retreat of the EAC Heads of State on Infrastructure and Financing in Nairobi (Thursday 29 November), and the 14th Ordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State Summit on Friday 30 November 2012.

{{A rise in reports of high level corruption in the country have led to a decline in President Jakaya Kikwete’s approval rating by 19 points in the last four years, a new survey shows.}}

The survey, conducted by Policy Research for Development (Repoa) in collaboration with Afrobarometer, between May and June 2012, indicates that the President’s job approval rating had decreased from 90 to 71 points between 2008 and 2012.

This means his approval rating declined by about 20 per cent in the survey period.

Also, 7 out of 10 people who participated in the survey associated the President’s Office with corruption, an upward trend compared to 5 out of 10 people in 2008, the survey shows.

Mr Kikwete, who was recently re-elected CCM national chairman, when he spoke to hundreds of Dar es Salaam’s supporters recently, admitted that many people have lost faith in the ruling party due to various negative issues, such as corruption.

He said improving the party’s image would be the foremost task of the new secretariat, noting that CCM would conduct a survey to establish why it has lost popularity and strive to rectify the situation.

Called Afrobarometer Round 5 Tanzania Survey, released yesterday in Dar es Salaam, the survey indicates that 90% of the people interviewed disapproved of the way the President performed his job for the past 12 months.

The Afrobarometer is a comparative series of public attitude surveys, covering up to 35 African countries in Round 5 (2011-2013). It measures public attitudes on democracy and its alternatives, evaluations of the quality of governance and economic performance.

Presenting the report, Repoa director of governance and service delivery research Jamal Msami said on average, there were more people, both in relative and absolute terms, in the year 2012 than in 2008, who view the government as having underperformed in handling the economy.

Besides the economy and food shortages, the significance of social services in underlining faith in the government was more pronounced with the recurrence of shortfalls in the services in the list of most important areas in dire need of attention.

“Generally, the composite assessment of the government’s performance notwithstanding, the 2012 survey yields more negative responses and fewer corresponding positive ones in almost all aspects of government conduct compared to 2008,” he said.

In spite of an adverse evaluation of administration’s performance, Tanzanians remain optimistic that the government can deliver on key problems afflicting them within the next five years.

In a component introduced for the first time in this year’s survey, when asked about the likelihood of the central government solving the most important problems, two thirds (66%) of respondents remain confident on the government’s likelihood to solve them, compared to less than 1 in 10 who remained overly pessimistic on the government’s ability to deliver.

At the national level, about 8% of adults reported that their children received free food at school, an observation that shows the school food programme is a success as a motivational element in school enrolment.

With 66% of adults complaining at least once about the quality of teaching in public primary schools, this year’s survey provides ample grounds for a critical rethink of performance enhancing strategies in Tanzania.

Comparison of perceptions between this year’s survey and round 4 of the survey in 2008 reveals on the overall general adverse assessment of personal living conditions.

“Not surprisingly, almost two thirds (64%) of all adult Tanzanians didn’t have a job that paid them a wage compared to 56% in 2008,” he added.

In both 2012 and 2008, more than half (53 and 54% respectively) of all adults claimed to have gone without enough food to eat at least once in the preceding 12 months.

Other areas that the report has highlighted include law and order in need of scrutiny as crime is on the up with seven fold increase in physical assaults in four years from 6% to 43%

The report also established that close to 9 in 10 (88%) of Tanzanians experienced shortage of medicines and other medical supplies at least once within the past year in a public facility.

Tanzanians perceive they are worse off today than four years ago, and welfare discontent increased from 55% to 65% in the past four years.

{Citizen}

{{In the recently concluded meeting of the East African Community Forum of Electoral Commissions has recommended to the 26th Meeting of the Council of Ministers for consideration and adoption the EAC Principles for Election Observation and Evaluation in the Partner States’ elections.}}

The principles give clear guidelines on the structure, methodology, timeframes and reporting back by the EAC Election Observer Missions.

The Principles also provide guidelines for election observation and the code of conduct for election observers.

EAC missions have in the past applied other regional guidelines and codes of conduct from the African Union, SADC and the United Nations.

The Forum, which met in Nairobi, Kenya, noted that the instrument, which has drawn from different regional and international normative frameworks, has been tailored to be EAC-specific in context.

“The draft Principles provide a systematized framework for organizing and deploying different forms of observer missions and outlines the principles, scope and methodology for the EAC Election Observer Missions,” said EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Political Federation, Dr. Julius Rotich.

He added that the Observer Missions doubled as support missions that would facilitate peer learning and information exchange while entrenching the culture of democracy in the region.

The Forum also proposed the establishment of a support unit within EAC structure for effective implementation of the principles and coordination of electoral matters in the region, adding that they are pertinent to the integration process.

The two-day meeting also recommended sending short term as well as long-term observers for the Kenya elections slated for March 2013.

This will ensure EAC’s presence and visibility in the field that is usually dominated by international observers.

“In principle, the Forum has recommended the time frame for particular missions stating that short term mission should not exceed 14 days while long term observer missions should not exceed 90 days.

The issue has been provided for in the EAC principles for clarity and certainty noting that it will be subject to budgetary provisions as well the electoral calendar of a particular Partner State,” said the Deputy EAC Secretary General.

Meanwhile, the EAC Pre-Election Assessment Mission, undertaken by the EAC Forum of Electoral Commissions has so far expressed satisfaction on Kenya’s preparations for the next year’s election despite the challenges.

“Kenya has made considerable progress towards conducting free, fair and credible elections,” the Mission said in its report, adding that it was convinced that the right conditions exist for the country to pull off a credible poll and backing the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to successfully conclude that exercise.