Tanzania has said it will not sign an economic partnership agreement (EPA) between East Africa Community (EAC) and European Union (EU) following Brexit. The announcement caused anguish and shock at the EAC headquarters in Arusha. A number of officials at the Secretariat were apparently at a loss on Friday on learning of the country's U-turn as announced in Dar es Salaam by Foreign Affairs permanent secretary Aziz Mlima. "Has the Tanzania government withdrawn?" inquired a surprised official who said if it was true, the move would be a setback to the negotiations which have been going on for years between EAC and EU. On Friday, Dr Mlima told reporters in Dar es Salaam that Tanzania had decided to halt the signing because of “turmoil” that the EU is experiencing following Britain’s exit. The agreement between the EU and EAC was scheduled to be signed on July 18. Dr Mlima said signing the pact would risk exposing young EAC countries to harsh economic conditions given the prevailing conditions in Europe. The official said Tanzania’s Parliament would first peruse and advise the government before committing to the deal. “Our experts have established that the way it has been crafted, the EPA will not benefit local industries in East Africa. Instead it will lead to their destruction as developed countries are likely to dominate the market,” Dr Mlima said. Dr Mlima's remarks echoed strong criticism of the pact by former president Mkapa who warned EAC not to rush to sign the pact because...

Stakeholders in the envisaged 4-billion- US dollar crude oil pipeline from Kabale in Uganda to Tanga Port in Tanzania are finalising drafting contracts to establish a company that would oversee implementation of the mega project, it has been learnt. Parties in the scheme include the governments of Tanzania and Uganda as well as Total E&P of France, Tullow Oil of the United Kingdom and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). The Managing Director of the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), Dr James Mataragio, told the 'Daily News' at the ongoing 40th Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF) that the company will be known as Pipeline Company (PIPECO). According to the TPDC boss, PIPECO will be charged with seeking funds, procuring goods and services and operating the oil pipeline. "In essence the project has already started but physical work will kick-off after final investment decision is reached by mid next year," he explained. He added; "The envisaged company will have to seek 60 per cent of the funds to implement the project while the involved stakeholders will foot the remaining 40 per cent." Tanzania will charge Uganda 12.5 US dollars for a barrel of oil while the former has also been invited to own 8 per cent shares in an oil refinery to be set up in Hoima to refine oil for countries in the East African region. Asked whether Tanzania had plans to set up a refinery in Tanga, Mr Mataragio said the country is not considering setting up the...

Hoima — Construction of the Uganda-Tanzania crude oil export pipeline is planned to start in January next year, Uganda's Energy minister Irene Muloni has said. Ms Muloni, who led a Ugandan team that held closed door discussions with the Tanzanian delegation in Hoima Town on Tuesday, told the media that the two countries had agreed to fast-track the project which will cover 1,443 kilometres. The construction of the pipeline, meant to export the Ugandan crude oil to the international market, is planned to be finalised by 2020. Oil explorers have discovered more than 6.5 billion barrels of crude oil reserves from about 40 per cent of the Albertine basin in western Uganda. Uganda's new round of oil exploration licensing may see the country increasing its petroleum reserves, if the surveys prove positive. "Every activity in respect to the project will be done in a fast tracking mode. We have agreed to meet in Tanga (Tanzania) in October this year to launch the front-end-engineering-design for the project," Ms Muloni told the press at Miika Eco Resort and Hotel, where the meeting was held. She added that feasibility studies estimate the project to cost $3.55 billion. Land acquisition assessments, surveys, environmental and social impact studies will be conducted before construction starts. She said a pipeline company will be set up and Uganda, Tanzania and other interested East African states will have shares in it. "The pipeline is very attractive and viable. Securing financing will be explored in much detail. Contacts are being...

Partnerships, Unions, Associations and such other groupings (including marriage) which are formed for a common purpose, have key ingredients for success some of which include commitment and perseverance. Even when things do not seem to be working well and when difficulties arise, the option should not be to leave but rather find solutions to deal with the difficulties. In some circumstances, however, this is not an option. The United Kingdom decided by majority vote to leave the European Union (EU) as a sign of disgruntlement regarding a number of difficulties arising from their membership. I will not comment on options that could have been pursued but rather lessons that the EU could learn from the East African Community. While the EU has been around for four decades and has provided experiences that the EAC has learnt from, this time round, the EAC has something to teach the EU. The main issue for UK's departure from the EU was immigration. Their membership to the EU led to large migration of various EU nationals into the UK. It was felt that this was putting a strain on their economy and services such as health including job scarcity for UK citizens. In my research, l found various unofficial statistics regarding numbers of migrants with conservative estimates of about 5 per cent of the population constituting of migrants. Migration on its own should not be a problem because migrants bring benefits to the economy. By their membership to the EU, the UK should have...

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta urged African nations to re-engage with Israel as its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, tours the continent pursuing business deals and support in world forums. In turn, Netanyahu exhorted a group of some 80 Israeli executives in his entourage to explore new business ventures in Kenyatta’s country and help strengthen political alliances in Africa. The Israeli leader later told reporters that part of his Africa strategy is to pressure Palestinians to resume peace negotiations by demonstrating that Israel is breaking out of its political isolation. “Come closer, come and invest in Kenya,” Netanyahu told the Israelis in Nairobi who mixed with hundreds of Kenyan executives at a business forum to explore potential deals. “We have strategic interest, we have national and international interests, but I wouldn’t be asking you to do this if I didn’t think that you would benefit.” As the first Israeli prime minister in 29 years to visit sub-Saharan Africa, Netanyahu said he’s asking for political support from countries that have largely sided with Arab nations on resolutions critical of Israel in the United Nations and African Union. “My goal is to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table for direct talks and prevent them from automatically turning to the international community to gain support to pressure Israel to reach peace on their terms, without negotiations,” Netanyahu, 66, told reporters traveling with him on the four-country tour. ‘Head in Sand’ Kenyatta, 54, made his own trip to Jerusalem in February. He said on...

Regional governments have been urged to invest in capacity building of technocrats involved in international trade negotiations to enhance their skills and ensure they bargain for deals that will benefit citizens. According to Henry Kimera of Consumer Food Education Trust (Uganda), with commercial oil and gas deposits being confirmed in almost all the six East African Community (EAC) countries, government must sharpen negotiation skills of technocrats so that they are able to negotiate better deals to ensure maximum benefit for countries. Kimera added that most regional technocrats negotiate from a point of weakness since they are not well-versed with international trade negotiation and other economic agreements, including oil deals. He was speaking during a two-day regional conference on how EAC can achieve structural transformation and sustainable development that was organised by Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI-Uganda) in Kampala last week. The conference, under the theme “Achieving Structural Transformation in the context of Regional Integration and the EU-EAC EPA: Implications and way forward for the EAC” attracted government officials and the private sector players, as well as East African Legislative Assembly MPs, and academia from across the region. Commenting on the EPAs, Kimera said EAC governments alone cannot guarantee the success of the deals, the reason why other stakeholders should be involved in the negotiation process. “We are the consumers, we work with the citizens, and know what’s best for them and the challenges they face mostly. This is why the signing and the ratification of...

Britain referundum decision to exit the European Union under the so-called Brexit has no long-term consequences on East African Community, Robert Mathu, the executive director of Capital Market Authority in Rwanda, has said. Before and after the voting, the Pound Sterling continued to lose value compared to the last 30 years. The capital markets in UK also incurred losses and have lost value that has made the future of EU uncertain thus the departure of the UK. Mathu said some of the effects might reach the regions that have an economic relation with Britain and the British investment. “Brexit is a problem for the whole world since the reason as to why most countries come together for economic purposes, is to allow investment and businesses to freely operate in the member countries,” he said. Mathu and other analysists worldwide, confirm that the first worry of the Brexit is capitalist countries will spread the ideas of exit making globalisation a major priority while other countries want to put extra security on the immigrants and control the movement. “It will affect the globalisation and the citizens and investors who have been travelling to the UK will encounter problems. Normally, you would find people traveling to UK and other countries with ease,” Mathu said. He added that Brexit will not affect the payment of the $400 million that Rwanda got on the Eurobond market since it got the loan in Dollar currency and not a Pound currency. EAC remains uncertain Mathu said the...

The reduction of data roaming rates by the Northern Corridor countries will help spur trade, the private sector players have said. Telecom firms operating in Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, and South Sudan implemented a directive by the Heads of State to cut the data roaming rates by July 1 under the One Area Network initiative. The development, where data roaming rates have been cut by up to 80 per cent, means that Rwandans will roam in Uganda, South Sudan and Kenya at much lower charges, local telecom firms have said. Tigo subscribers and roaming visitors on the Tigo network are now browsing at Rwf90/MB down from Rwf440 previously, a development private sector players say will ease business between member states and deepen integration. The rates will apply when the telecom’s subscribers are visiting Uganda or Kenya. Tigo’s local data tariff is Rwf51/MB, while an SMS from Rwanda to Uganda, Kenya or South Sudan is now at Rwf45 per from Rwf75. Voice calls to Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan will cost Rwf68, Rwf60, and 60, down from Rwf128, Rwf256 and Rwf245 respectively. MTN customers roaming in Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan will now browse at Rwf88/MB under a new tariff, down from Rwf408, Teta Mpyisi, the telecom firm’s senior manager for brand and sponsorship, said over the weekend. The Northern Corridor Heads of State summit held in Kampala, Uganda last year directed telecom operators and regulators to fast-track reduction of data charges and review taxes downward, setting July 1 as the implementation...

Windhoek – It may be too early to calculate the potential damage to SADC, and Africa, from the unprecedented earthquake that ripped through the European Union – following the exit of the United Kingdom – and the seismic waves of political and economic uncertainty that are unfolding. Until now the EU has been widely held as the world’s best functioning political economic union model, to which even SADC and other African regional blocs had looked up, as they embark on regional integration. What is becoming clear though is the fact that just like with many US companies who found themselves with no contingency plans for an EU without the UK, the 15 Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states, as well as the rest of Africa, are now scrambling to assess the post-shocks and establish contingency plans. And there are serious implications for SADC and the rest of the continent. To start with, this past week Professor Ian Scoones penned an opinion paper that the European Union (EU) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with SADC that was inked on 10 June in Kasane, Botswana, has to be renegotiated, especially for SADC countries to eventually have free trade access to the United Kingdom, or Great Britain, that is no longer a member of the                      EU. “Now, all these arrangements have to be renegotiated bilaterally with each of the other 162 World Trade Organisation members. It will be a slow and costly readjustment,...

When incomes are strengthened, a country is able to build a new level of class consciousness. We have spent a disproportionate amount of ink on manufacturing, trade and how to increase our exports. This is because we believe there is no medicine against poverty or a more reliable test of the ingredients of a good ideology than a tool which helps people's incomes consistently rise. Trade in particular, throughout history, has proven itself a major tool to achieve this objective. Even on the rank of global issues such as country carbon emissions, quite often used by the West as an argument against developing countries to slow down the manufacturing and trade race, Africa still has plenty of leg room to increase its industry without damaging our planet. For example, there is not a single African country on the top 10 list of polluting nations. China tops the tables at 29.1% followed by the US at 15.1% and the EU at 10.5%. Indonesia is the last on the tables with 1.4% global emissions share. Not any African nation. It means even our opening up of large commercial tracts of land for agriculture (About 600million hectares of land or 60% of the global arable farmland is in Africa) mother planet still stretches out her hands beautifully, allowing us to produce more without harming her. We are not there yet. We can manufacture and trade our way out of poverty, increase our incomes rapidly and hold out for many years to come without...