Understanding the EAC Common Market - Part I

I was involved in two major meetings about the EAC within 14 days, one in Kampala (Uganda) and one in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). The Kampala one seemed straight forward as it was a meeting for reviewing a draft livestock policy for the region. The second one was a little more 'interesting' and expectedly so because it brought together (rightfully) a wide cross section of business people, professionals and agencies that support the integration process. The subject of discussion was 'free movement of services' and inevitably the movement of persons (service providers and workers) across borders of partner states.

The private sector players shared lots of bad experiences they have so far gone through with reference to movement of service providers and workers across borders of partner states. Some of the issues the private sector players lamented about are: the difficulty of obtaining work permits timely; disparities in work permit fees; getting the right people for the right jobs on time (obtaining from across borders of the partner states); discriminatory tax treatment; etc. The more dicey one, to me, is the need to recognize the contribution of non-certified, non-accredited skilled persons and to allow them move freely across the borders of EAC partner states. I will dwell on this particular issue in one of the subsequent posts.

More later. Watch this space.