EAC prepares ground for Tripartite Free Trade Area negotiations / Considers Strategy for the negotiations
ARUSHA, Tanzania, September 30, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ — A four-day EAC Multi Sectoral Committee of Experts meeting to consider draft EAC strategy, work plan and budget for the Tripartite (COMESA-EAC-SADC) Free Trade Area (FTA) negotiations concluded today at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya.
The meeting, which was officially opened by the EAC Director General for Customs and Trade, Mr. Peter Kiguta, was held pursuant to the decision of the Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment (SCTIFI) of 29 August 2011, which directed the Secretariat to develop and implement an EAC Work Plan and Budget for implementation of Tripartite activities for the period July 2011 to June 2012.
That Sectoral Council also directed the Secretariat to convene a Multi-Sectoral Committee of Experts meeting to endorse the EAC Tripartite Work Plan and Budget as well as agree on an EAC strategy for the negotiations of the Tripartite FTA.
Welcoming the delegates to the meeting, the EAC Director General recalled that cooperation at the Tripartite level started way back in 2005 and that since then, two Tripartite Summits of Heads of State (22 October 2008 and 12 June 2011) and two Tripartite Council of Ministers meetings (March 2008 and 10 June 2011) had been held which issued directives to guide cooperation under the Tripartite framework.
Mr. Kiguta noted that implementation of the Tripartite programmes was at two levels; at the inter-Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and at the intra-RECs levels. He reiterated that the RECs were to develop work plans that could guide them in the Tripartite FTA negotiations.
He stressed the importance of the Partner States involvement in the development of the work plans noting that after the 2nd Tripartite Summit, Partner States were now expected to start implementing the Roadmap for the Establishment of the Tripartite FTA.
The meeting considered the Draft EAC Strategy for Negotiating the Tripartite FTA and the draft EAC Tripartite Work Plan and Budget that had been submitted to the Partner States by the EAC Secretariat and made critical observations and comments on the two documents and the Secretariat was tasked to incorporate them in a revised document to be circulated to the Partner States by 7 October 2011.
A meeting of the Multi Sectoral Committee of Experts to finalise the revised Draft EAC Strategy and the draft Work Plan and Budget will be convened prior the Senior Officials Session of the Sectoral Council for Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment to be held in October 2011.
Experts from all the EAC Partner States; Directors for Productive Sectors, Dr Caleb Nyamajeje Weggoro and for Customs, Mr. Kenneth Bagamuhunda; and other senoir officials from the EAC Secretariat attended the meeting.
SOURCE
East African Community (EAC)
