ARUSHA: THE East African Community (EAC) Secretary General Peter Mathuki has commended the Tanzanian government for its readiness to support the process of restoration of peace in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Dr Mathuki revealed on Wednesday that Tanzania has wholeheartedly expressed the desire to support its neighbour in its peacekeeping mission.
“Just like other partner states, Tanzania has made financial commitments in facilitating the peace process,” explained Dr Mathuki, while briefing reporters on the state of the EAC forum.
According to the EAC Secretary General, Tanzania’s willingness fully demonstrates President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s commitment towards integration.
Other countries that have also contributed to the peace fund include Rwanda and South Sudan, according to Dr Mathuki.
“Further we appreciate other friendly countries of Angola and Senegal who have made financial contributions to the EAC Peace Fund,” he said.
Dr Mathuki further disclosed that the African Union (AU) had contributed 2 million US dollars (about 4.9bn/-) for the cause.
“As a Secretariat, we are very committed to ensure that the Eastern DRC is stable…we also appeal to other partner states to support the cause,” observed the EAC Secretary General.
Giving an account on the achievements and challenges faced by the EAC in the past year, Dr Mathuki said the regional economic bloc’s total trade increased by 13.4 per cent to 74.1 billion US dollars in 2022 from 65.3billion US dollars in 2021, while total Intra-EAC trade grew by 11.2 per cent to 10.9billion US dollars in 2022 from 9.8 billion US dollars in 2021.
The percentage share of Intra-EAC trade to EAC total trade stood at 15 per cent in 2022, according to Dr Mathuki.
“The EAC intra-trade value for 2023 has indicated a positive trend with 16 per cent in January and 19 per cent in February recorded of total global trade,” explained the EAC Secretary General.
Dr Mathuki attributed the feat to a strong collaboration with partner states to promote EAC trade including admission of DRC, timely resolution of Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs), enhanced promotion of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises through the Annual EAC MSMEs Trade Fair sensitisation and capacity building of relevant stakeholders among others.
Of particular interest was Dr Mathuki’s revelation that by June 2023, the EAC had resolved 26 NTBs out of the 33 reported.
“From 184 NTBs to just seven, this is a significant achievement as we aspire to make EAC the most vibrant regional economy.”
On single customs territory, Dr Mathuki said its implementation, which is a stop gap measure towards the realisation of a fully-fledged Custom Union in the EAC, has seen a reduction in the turn-around time from an average of 21 days to 4 days along the EAC corridors.
At least 95 per cent of the EAC Customs regimes including imports and exports have been operationalised with transit being piloted.
He added that the EAC had adopted 35 per cent as the fourth band of the EAC Common External Tariff (CET).
The CET is one of the key instruments under the Customs Union pillar, which justifies regional integration through uniform treatment of goods imported from third parties and boosting local production through preferential treatment of goods manufactured in the region.
