Submitted by Anonymous on February 6, 2009 - 10:14am.
I think to be clear cut the country termed not to be ready is Tanzania. It is well to go ahead and form the common market without us (Tanzania), but this will have toatally lost the meaning of the EAC. There are teething problems in all the countries and so atleast some time can be granted to iron out these problems to avoid future colissions. The big problem is that this has taken too long.... Personnaly I would wish to see a vibrant working EAC in unity. Land issues still linger in the discussions especially for Tz. It is surprising in Tanzania that we have a lot of fertile land provided buy God... which is not utilized probably because the people here arent hard working as it should. We should also remember the land in other countries was given by God as well. Please we should also work in the same spirirt and measures taken in Tz to ensure working culture is instituted in majority of Tanzanians to be productive and stop fearing the hard workers from Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda in that order. Laziness must be fought tooth and nail to ensure we bocome competitive enough. We can all work to ensure famine is never heard of in East African Countries.
Another big probelm is the Leadership in East Africa, this has no exceptions. In Kenya we all know what happened, In Tanzania-Zanzibar issues, Uganda-Opposition thwarted day after day, Rwanda and Burundi God help us . Please our leaders change the attitude and love and respect your citizens.
Lecturer Tumaini University,
KCMCollege.
Submitted by Anonymous on February 5, 2009 - 11:37am.
ideally it will make sense to go ahead to form a common market and the ones not ready to join when they believe to be ready. this is the European Union approach as well. however, one should keep in mind that in EAC, we are talking about 5 countries and not 15-30 like Europe. If we cannot reach consensus among the 5 countries then I believe that we are talking about the lack of political readiness rather than economic. one should also keep in mind that in Europe, the common market negotiations took approx 20 years to conclude...ours have been negotiated within 1 year...
Submitted by Anonymous on March 23, 2009 - 12:52pm.
I think we are missing point here. the issue is not which country is ready or not. The main issues are two principles of EAC. One is single undertaking and another is consensus decision making process at EAC.
One single undertaking: This implies that all issues/articles on the ongoing common market must agreed by all partner states to conclude CM negotiations. To me if countries can not agrred on just one issue, or two it is better to agree to disgree and having a common market which is in transition. The CM which don not have all features of CM. Let give good example in EU land issue is not one of of the issue in the integration process yet we know for sure is one of the factors of production. But unlike other factors land is disputable issue, very fixed, gift in nature and has social and market value. Also on the case of Custom Union we had a CU which is in transition. The CU which do not have all features of CU for example still uganda has different CET on what is called Uganda list, domestic liberalisation as some products from Kenya to other EAC Partner States still attract tariffs, also we have different Customs Authorities which colect reveneu yet we are proud of one custom union. Let not be very theoritical about integration we can have our model provided is working.
Submitted by Anonymous on March 23, 2009 - 2:33pm.
Consensus decision making process principle:
Since any member can in principle block an agreement from being reached, the consensus decision making process in the EAC-CM negotiations has particularly come under the spotlight as a significant setback. As Kenya kept blaming Tanzania for blocking the advancement of CM negotiations. With 5 countries as EAC Partner States is of more relevant than even before. We have to acknowledge that the same decision making process is an important check and balance which prevents the strong from forcing through agreements that promote their interets at the expenses of other members. Actually political committment and trust and respect of each country as equal partner should prevail to make EAC a success RTAs. The politics outside the negotiation table will not help but rather derail the whole process of negotiation.
By Leocardia Mangare from Mwasi-Moshi
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East African Common Market Debate
I think to be clear cut the country termed not to be ready is Tanzania. It is well to go ahead and form the common market without us (Tanzania), but this will have toatally lost the meaning of the EAC. There are teething problems in all the countries and so atleast some time can be granted to iron out these problems to avoid future colissions. The big problem is that this has taken too long.... Personnaly I would wish to see a vibrant working EAC in unity. Land issues still linger in the discussions especially for Tz. It is surprising in Tanzania that we have a lot of fertile land provided buy God... which is not utilized probably because the people here arent hard working as it should. We should also remember the land in other countries was given by God as well. Please we should also work in the same spirirt and measures taken in Tz to ensure working culture is instituted in majority of Tanzanians to be productive and stop fearing the hard workers from Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda in that order. Laziness must be fought tooth and nail to ensure we bocome competitive enough. We can all work to ensure famine is never heard of in East African Countries.
Another big probelm is the Leadership in East Africa, this has no exceptions. In Kenya we all know what happened, In Tanzania-Zanzibar issues, Uganda-Opposition thwarted day after day, Rwanda and Burundi God help us . Please our leaders change the attitude and love and respect your citizens.
Lecturer Tumaini University,
KCMCollege.
common market
ideally it will make sense to go ahead to form a common market and the ones not ready to join when they believe to be ready. this is the European Union approach as well. however, one should keep in mind that in EAC, we are talking about 5 countries and not 15-30 like Europe. If we cannot reach consensus among the 5 countries then I believe that we are talking about the lack of political readiness rather than economic. one should also keep in mind that in Europe, the common market negotiations took approx 20 years to conclude...ours have been negotiated within 1 year...
common market
I think we are missing point here. the issue is not which country is ready or not. The main issues are two principles of EAC. One is single undertaking and another is consensus decision making process at EAC.
One single undertaking: This implies that all issues/articles on the ongoing common market must agreed by all partner states to conclude CM negotiations. To me if countries can not agrred on just one issue, or two it is better to agree to disgree and having a common market which is in transition. The CM which don not have all features of CM. Let give good example in EU land issue is not one of of the issue in the integration process yet we know for sure is one of the factors of production. But unlike other factors land is disputable issue, very fixed, gift in nature and has social and market value. Also on the case of Custom Union we had a CU which is in transition. The CU which do not have all features of CU for example still uganda has different CET on what is called Uganda list, domestic liberalisation as some products from Kenya to other EAC Partner States still attract tariffs, also we have different Customs Authorities which colect reveneu yet we are proud of one custom union. Let not be very theoritical about integration we can have our model provided is working.
Common Market -Consensus Principle a MUST
Consensus decision making process principle:
Since any member can in principle block an agreement from being reached, the consensus decision making process in the EAC-CM negotiations has particularly come under the spotlight as a significant setback. As Kenya kept blaming Tanzania for blocking the advancement of CM negotiations. With 5 countries as EAC Partner States is of more relevant than even before. We have to acknowledge that the same decision making process is an important check and balance which prevents the strong from forcing through agreements that promote their interets at the expenses of other members. Actually political committment and trust and respect of each country as equal partner should prevail to make EAC a success RTAs. The politics outside the negotiation table will not help but rather derail the whole process of negotiation.
By Leocardia Mangare from Mwasi-Moshi