Recently, the East African Community (EAC) started moving towards harmonising trade among its member countries where it hopes to have one test, one standard and one certificate. However, while trade harmonising among African trade blocs has been going on, ensuring member countries can trade among themselves, trade amongst African countries is yet to happen. Therefore, the next step, according to Mr David Livingstone Ebiru, the executive director of Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), is to create a harmonised trade among African countries.
“While there is 1.3 billion people in Africa, there is only 16 percent trade among African countries. The irony is that while many African countries are drawn to trade with other trade blocs, these have rejected our goods on grounds of product quality. Additionally, several trade blocs have also used the issue of standards against Africa,” he says.
Mr Ebiru cites an example of other countries wanting African countries to harmonise the sizes of their organic produce.
“Despite these meeting world standards, some countries want them in particular sizes and weights which we cannot tailor make. So if these big avocados, for example, are not good for the rest of the world, why not trade amongst ourselves seeing that we can appreciate them?” he posits.
Mr Odrek Rwabogo, the presidential advisor on export and industrial development points out that our major exports are horticulture products and European standards keep getting tighter to protect their population but also limit our sales.
Source : Monitor
