Employers push for full effecting of common market protocol
What you need to know:
- According to the chairperson of the East African Employers Association Rosemary Ssenabulya, employers are happy with the process as it shores up factors of production and enables free movement across the common market.
- General secretary of the Kenya Quarry and Mine Workers Union Wafula Wa Musamia, who represented Central Organisation of Trade Unions secretary general Francis Atwoli, said mobility of workers leads to reallocation of competence across sectors thus promoting co-operation.
- The basic elements of the common market protocol are a smoothly functioning customs union including complete elimination of all tariff and non-tariff barriers plus a common external tariff.
Regional employers and trade unions have urged East African Community (EAC) to fully implement the common market protocol, which among other things provides for easy movement of both goods and labour within the bloc.
The East African Trade Union Confederation (EATUC) and the East African Employers Association (EAEO) now say it is time it was fully effected to boost trade in the region.
According to the chairperson of the East African Employers Association Rosemary Ssenabulya, employers are happy with the process as it shores up factors of production and enables free movement across the common market.
“This was an impetus for economic growth and job creation in the region. EATUC and EAEO have embarked on a process to provide joint recommendations to the governments of the EAC partner states in order to speed up this process for the people of East Africa to feel the direct benefits of the regional integration, while respecting the need for a time-frame with adequate transitional mechanisms,” Ms Ssenabulya said.
General secretary of the Kenya Quarry and Mine Workers Union Wafula Wa Musamia, who represented Central Organisation of Trade Unions secretary general Francis Atwoli, said mobility of workers leads to reallocation of competence across sectors thus promoting co-operation.
He challenged partner states to consider the abolition of work permits all together in the spirit of fostering integration. “There are important benefits to be reaped by increasing labour mobility and if anything, we should have work permits retained if and only if it would boost data collection and not necessarily just as a revenue collection base,” Mr Musamia said.
The basic elements of the common market protocol are a smoothly functioning customs union including complete elimination of all tariff and non-tariff barriers plus a common external tariff.
