The East African Community member states, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, should focus on the elimination of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) that are blocking the effective implementation of the Customs Union, according to a new study published on local media in Kampala on Thursday.

The study, titled "EAC Customs Union Tariff Liberalization in Perspective," says that the success of the Customs Union would depend on the elimination of non-tariff barriers on intra-EAC trade.

The study says the gains from the Customs Union can be reaped overwhelmingly from the elimination of NTBs resulting from the deliberate government policies and procedures.

Michael Stahl, a consultant in Arusha of northern Tanzania who carried out the recent study, said EAC partner states should dedicate more attention to effective NTB elimination.

The study notes that NTBs arising from deliberate government policies and procedures, like cumbersome customs procedures at border crossings, red-tape, corruption, administrative delays, police roadblocks can and must be eliminated to remove serious barriers to intra-EAC trade.

According to the study, a survey carried out among companies trading in eastern and southern Africa confirms that tariffs play much less important role as a barrier to cross-border trade in sub- Saharan Africa compared to NTBs.

"It follows that welfare and employment gains from the Customs Union are primarily a matter of elimination of NTBs, rather then the tariff liberation," says the study.

Regarding tariff implementation of the Customs Union, the study says the impact on Kenya is relatively small due to the very low pre-Customs Union tariffs resulting from the country's preferential Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) tariff discount of 90 percent on intra-EAC imports.

However, contrary to what was observed for Kenya and Tanzania, Uganda's trade-weighted average tariffs on third country imports increased by 46 percent as a result of the EAC Common External Tariff.

Source: Xinhua