PRESS RELEASE
 
SECOND ROUND OF NEGOTIATIONS ON EAC COMMON MARKET LAUNCHES ON BRIGHT NOTE
 
 
EAC Headquarters, Arusha, 18 August 2008: The second round of the negotiations  of the EAC  Common Market Protocol  opened in Nairobi today amidst expressions  of a determination  by all the  negotiating parties  to work towards  the conclusion  of the negotiations  and reaching  agreement  on the Protocol  by the set deadline  of December 2008. The Nairobi round of negotiations will be held from 18-23 August 2008.

The first  round of the negotiations were held  in Kigali, Rwanda  on 14- 22  April 20008  and made significant progress   with agreements that wee  reached on the overall  structure as well as specific  issues  on the Preamble, the  Objectives and Principles of the Protocol, Free Movement  of Goods, Free Movement of Persons and Free Movement of Labour.

Addressing the opening  of the talks at the Grand Regency Hotel, Nairobi today, the Kenya Assistant Minister  for East African Community, Hon. Peter Munya commended  the High Level Task Force  on the Negotiations of the  EAC Common Market Protocol  (HLTF) for its  arrival  at a consensus  on a large  number of  the critical  aspects  of the Protocol.

The Minister said  the negotiators should adopt  a positive  attitude  in  shedding off  some national interests , “if  we are  to realize  the objective  of the Common market  which  is to create  a single internal  market that  guarantees  the free movement  of goods, persons, labour, services and capital”.

The Minister noted  that Tanzania , which did not attend the first round  of negotiations ( in Kigali)  had, however, in the intervening period  received  the report of the Kigali deliberations  and  forwarded her comments.  The Tanzania comments will form the first agenda of the current 2nd round of the negotiations in Nairobi after which the negotiations will proceed into the other aspects of the Protocol, i.e. ,  the Right of Establishment; the Right of Residence; Free Movement of Services; Transport; and Free Movement of Capital.

Meanwhile, the EAC Deputy Secretary General (Projects and Programmes), Amb.  Julius Onen has said a key outcome of the Nairobi round of negotiations is for the HLTF to consider Tanzania’s comments on the Kigali deliberations. Amb. Onen said he was confident that a compromise would be reached on the Tanzania comments, which he said were constructive, in the spirit of give and take that the negotiations are emphasizing.

The Tanzania comments, while  broadly endorsing the Kigali deliberations, seek clarifications or further elaborations on several issues, including  movements of refugees,  structural aspects  of addressing imbalances in the implementation of the Common Market; applications of the principles of  asymmetry and variable geometry as well as establishing  logical build up  from Customs Union  to Common Market and addressing more boldly the issues  of  acceleration  of economic growth  and development  in their link to the  promotion of free movement  of factors of production. 
 
 
Directorate of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
EAC
Arusha

Directorate of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
East African Community Secretariat(EAC)
Arusha International Conference Centre
Ngorongoro Wing, 2nd Floor
P.O. Box 1096, Arusha
Tanzania.
www.eac.int <http://www.eac.int>

– – –
Date:  Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:14:57 -0700 (PDT)
From:  Leo Odera Omolo
Subject:  Fw: PRESS RELEASE CM PROTOCOL NEGS NAIROBI 180808.