05/07/2011 (East African Business Week) -  Although the East African Community (EAC) Customs Union entered into full operations with application of zero internal tariffs in January 2010, its actualization remains incomplete. This is because there are still disturbing incidents of the application of non tariff barriers as well as non-uniform application of the common external tariff that continue to militate against the smooth operations of the Customs Union, according to Dr Richard Sezibera , the EAC Secretary general,  who led a team of journalists to find out outstanding issues related to the effective implementation of the Common Market protocol.

The inadequacies in the Customs Union were impinging on prospects of the EAC Common Market which is yet to make its impact because the effective implementation of the Common Market depends very much on the existence of a well functioning Customs Union.

The region has a task ahead to eliminate non tariff barriers in order to make the Customs Union and Common Market fully operational and working in the interest of East Africans.

Immigration officers at the Holili border post between Tanzania and Kenya appealed to the partner states to expedite the introduction of national identity cards that would be used to control cross border communities who are often infiltrated by aliens claiming to be citizens of Tanzania whereas not. A senior immigration officer at Holili, Mr  Apolinary Msuya, told journalists that Tanzanian should introduce national identification cards, saying the identification would assist the authorities identify bonafide citizens among thousands of people who straddle the country's border posts each day.

"Kenya and Rwanda have national identity cards while Tanzanians don't have, so it's difficult for us to know who is a Tanzanian and who is not among people moving around here on a daily basis," he noted.

He said the national IDs should not replace passports as travel documents within the East African Community (EAC) member states, but said they were necessary. He said his station is grappling with the problem of illegal immigrants, mainly from the Ethiopia and Somalia who transit through the country using shortcuts on their way to Southern Africa.

"Although some of them could possess the travel document it lacks Referred Visas that authorizes them to transit through Tanzania to their destinations," he said. Mr Wera Mushi, another immigration officer asked the EAC Secretariat and the partner states to sensitize the people on the Common Market protocol and other issues related to the integration process.

"After introduction of the free movement of persons in the Common Market last year, some people thought they no longer needed travel documents whereas the protocol requires one to have one signifying that many Tanzanians are still ignorant of immigration rules,".  However exports from Tanzania to Kenya were worth Tsh4.4b compared to Sh1.4b worth of goods sold in Kenya through Hoilili from July 2009 to June 2010.

Goods mainly exported to Kenya include tomatoes, onions, oranges, bananas, bauxite, soft timber, waste cotton, sunflower, cooking oil, petroleum jelly, soap and cereal crops.

Imports from Kenya were however lower than the exports to Kenya in the 2009/2010 fiscal year worth Sh10.9bn compared to the goods worth Tsh16.7bn in the lasy financial year.

Tanzania mainly imports knitting yarn, soap, palm oil, galvanized iron sheets, table salt, hollow sections, blankets, baby shawls, saucepans and bakery salt.

Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) station manager for Holili, Jumbura Muyenga however said the rate of smuggling has reduced  as many traders were motivated to use the legal routes when import duty, excise duty and value added tax was waived. Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) station manager at Taveta Chirstopher Mutaba said the major challenge are the traders who declare goods imported from out side the EAC at ports of entry in Mombasa and Dar es Salaam as goods in transit to one of the partner states, when they reach the declared destination they are repacked and re-exported to another EAC country.

He cited the example of Kingsoft toilet papers that are imported from China and their declared destination as Tanzania but they are re-packed and re-exported back to Kenya.

He explained that such goods are supposed to pay import duty of 25%, excise duty of 10%  and value added tax of 18%.

He said another problem identified is about the conflict on who should issue the certificates of origin in both Kenya and Tanzania."The certificates in Tanzania are issued by the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) while in Kenya they are issued by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA)," he said.

'We can only trust the certificates of origin when they are issued by a Customs officer who we are in contact with rather than the chamber of commerce," he explained.

The Incharge Customs at the Tarakea border post in Tanzania Frederick Kiondo said that they have got a challenge with the tourist visa."We get tourists from France, United Kingdom and the United States coming to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro but when they pay $50 for a visa at the Kenya border, they think it takes them all through the EAC partner states that still however have different laws regarding visas," he explained.

"Governments should introduce a single tourist visa in order to solve this problem because it is not only happening here and there is need to sensitize the border community on the integration process especially the Common Market protocol," he said.

He also said the post is having large numbers of illegal immigrants from Ethiopia, Somalia crossing through short cut routes.

"In the last one and half months we have arrested over 300 illegal immigrants and deported them to Kenya," he said.

Kenya's Officer in charge of Loitokitok border post Senewa Koilel said the Kenyan government has extended the period from three to six months to all travelers into to Kenya following the implementation of the Common Market Protocol."We also issued temporary documents that are valid for one year at a cost of Ksh300 and this allows a travelers to all EAC partner states and Southern Sudan," she said adding that the policy on travel documents should be made clear by the government to have one document for all EA citizens.

"However we are not following the protocol on opening of the border for 24 hours, we operate between 6.30a.m to 6.30pm, but we want the government to gazette the law to authorize the post to open for 24 hours and the need for introduction of a single Tourist Visa.