A CROSS-BORDER legal and consulting services consortium, ALP East Africa has launched the East African common market Common Services and Goods report (CSG SCAN 2022 – 2023) in Tanzania that provides understanding of the interface between national regulatory and regional trade frameworks.
Speaking during the launch ceremony, the Head of ALP East Africa, Mr Francis Gimara said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that, the essence of the East African Community (EAC) is economic integration and regional trade integration which is considered the primary, if not foremost, objective of the integration process.
Trade integration underpins the Treaty and the protocols on the Customs Union and Common Market and is expected to be the mainstay of EAC Partner States’ trade policies,”
The objective of this regular exercise is to track and review the EAC Partner States’ implementation of the Common Market Protocol (CMP) in terms of commitments in respect of the free movement of capital, services, and goods (CSG).
To that end, ALP East Africa has prepared an inaugural EAC Common Market CSG Scan 2022 – 2023,” added Mr Gimara.
“As an integrated legal and consulting services consortium of country law firms in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Sudan, we offer a cross-border practice that provides legal and consulting advisory in trade and cross-border business establishment and portfolio.
Also, we provide advisory support in relation to trade and cross-border transactions is the premise of ALP East Africa’s planned regular tracking and review of legal and regulatory measures by EAC Partner States,” he said.
He said ALP East Africa understands the duality of stakeholders in trade spaces in the public purview, the EAC governments including their multi-faceted and multi-tiered actors and in the private purview, private-sector actors including investors, the business community.
He said ALP East Africa plans to issue the EAC Common Market CSG Scan 2022 – 2023 as part of its regular legal advisory support on the EAC trade integration.
“As the inaugural scan, the EAC Common Market CSG Scan 2022 – 2023 assesses regulatory measures—in terms of legislation, administrative notices, directives taken by five EAC Partner States that impact the free movement of capital, services and goods in the Common Market during the period of January-December 2022.
The partner states considered in the inaugural annual CSG scan are Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Uganda.
Going forward, ALP East Africa plans to issue the CSG scans on a quarterly basis,” he added.
According to him, the EAC Common Market CSG Scan 2022 – 2023 shall be launched as part of the broader introduction of ALP East Africa across several EAC Partner States.
He said the EAC country launches are scheduled to take place from mid-May 2023 to June 2023.
Importantly, he said the CSG scan is to be seen against its likely impact on informing the EAC Partner States on the state of the CSG commitments under the CMP, as well as its great benefit to the trade integration actions of the EAC Secretariat, EALA, the Council of Ministers, and other Community institutions.
