Nairobi, Kenya – Fifteen years on from the launch of the World Trade Organisation, the prospect of free trade between the old and new members of the East African Community is set to become reality in 2010. Kenya’s trade with the far smaller neighbouring economies has increased by a third since 1995, and Tanzania’s trade with Kenya has risen by 300%. Economic integration is underway in East Africa. The trajectory is similar in other regions – the Southern African Development Community and West Africa’s ECOWAS.Trade has eclipsed other concerns within Africa’s regional institutions – a ‘spaghetti soup’ of overlapping mandates and memberships – for too long. No doubt trade is important, to fuel economic growth and to create more diversified economies. But for a majority of people, the benefits of these expanding regional blocs remain elusive.
A new emphasis on building cross-border infrastructure, regional power and telecommunications networks, ‘development corridors’ and common regional standards is emerging to challenge the old orthodoxy. ‘Regional public goods’ such as these can enhance Africa’s regional integration project more than increased trade – and they are the most direct and effective means of improving the incomes and livelihoods of the poor.
– Mark Ashurst, Director, Africa Research Institute
• This e-bulletin offers stories from African newspapers on regional integration – from East Africa’s common market to diplomatic intervention in Madagascar’s political crisis. Regional cooperation has grown in Africa in the last decade, but its goals are not always clear. Integration is too often seen as an end in itself. Our latest paper, Going Public: How Africa’s integration can work for the poor, calls for greater focus on poverty reduction. The provision of regional public goods, whether publicly or privately funded, is the most effective way to achieve this objective.
Presidents sign common market pact
Saturday, 21 November 2009
The heads of state of the five East African Community (EAC) members – Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi – signed a protocol to establish a common economic market within the region. Residents of the member states will be granted the right to live and work anywhere in the region. They will be subject to the same laws and entitled to the same rights as national residents. Restrictions on the movement of capital belonging to nationals from the region will be removed. Member states will also harmonise fiscal policy to remove tax distortions and promote regional investment. Plans for the East African Common Market have been in motion since the creation of a customs union in 2005, but discussions stalled over the issue of land ownership. Tanzania objected to an earlier draft that included a provision for land ownership, arguing it would conflict with national laws. Under the current document, land use and access will be governed by national laws of member states. The EAC plans to introduce a single currency by 2012.
Source: The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
