English
FrançaisComplaint
- Complaint number
- NTB-000-657
- NTB Type
- 5.15. Other
- Complaint
- Numerous monetary charges required by various agencies in the United Republic of Tanzania on exports of dairy products
- Status note
- The 42nd SCTIFI noted that the Republic of Uganda and the Republic of Kenya are handling the diary issues bilaterally with the United Republic of Tanzania whereby several meetings at the Ministerial and Summit levels have taken place and are at the final stages to be resolved. Also, the issue is being handled in the ongoing process of harmonization of fees, levies, and charges, and all the charges will be harmonized together with other charges. The SCTIFI hence guided that the NTB should be removed from the Time Bound program and allow the ongoing bilateral processes to be finalized.
- Progress update note
-
1. At the 16th EAC NTBs Forum held in Kigali, noted that the SCTIFI urged Partner States to forward charges on dairy products to the EAC Secretariat in order to work modalities to harmonize them. The Secretariat informed the meeting that it was only the Republic of Kenya and Rwanda who had submitted their charges. The meeting recommended the other Partner States to submit their charges by 31st December, 2014. The time frame for addressing this issue is June 2015.
2. At the 26th Regional Monitoring Committee meeting, the Secretariat reported that they had sent a letter to Partner States to submit the additional charges for harmonization.
3.The Secretariat reported that the study on discriminative fees and charges of the equivalent effect that affect trade in the region was conducted and the report was validated on 28th February 2020 via Video Conference. Tanzania did not participate in the VC meeting due to connection challenges and will submit their comments once the validated report is shared. The study recommended the establishment of a regional task force to harmonize the fees and charges
4.The Secretariat wrote to the Partner States to provide names of RTF members. All Partner States have nominated members. The Secretariat will convene a meeting of the RTF by January 2022.
5. On 14 June 2022, the Secretariat reported that an online meeting was held in March 2022 and recommended that the Secretariat mobilize resources to facilitate sector working groups as well as the RTF meetings.
6.The Sector Working Groups met from 25th July -9th August 2022 and compiled the list of National Levies in all Partner States which was validated by the Regional Task Force on 13th – 17th September 2022. The Report of RTF was considered by the Trade Committee and its recommendations were submitted to the 41st SCTIFI in November 2022. The Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance, and Investment took note of the progress and: (a) referred the list of levies, fees, and charges to relevant EAC Committees and Policy Organs for harmonization or removal (EAC/SCTIFI 41/ Directive 28); and (b) directed the Secretariat to include the reporting of levies, fees, and charges which were not captured in the matrix and any other that may be imposed in the Region as an agenda item of the NMC and RMC meetings (EAC/SCTIFI 41/ Directive 29).
7. The 34th RMC noted and commended the efforts by URT in reducing the fee from 2,000 Tshs to 1,000 Tshs per kg/ltr as import fees and export fees to 50 Tshs per Kg/ltr. The Republic of Kenya indicated that the fee is still very high and discriminative. A consignment of 24,000 liters of milk transferred from Kenya to Tanzania is charged 24,000,000 Tshs as an import fee while the same consignment transferred from Tanzania to Kenya is charged an equivalent of 120,000 Tshs as an import permit processing fee. It was also noted that while URT charges 1,000 Tshs per liter, the Republic of Kenya charges an equivalent of 120,000 Tshs per consignment. Charging Tshs 1,000 per ltr/kg by URT is equivalent to an import duty that violates Articles 15 (1 and 2) of the CUP on National Treatment and Article 75 of the Treaty. The URT indicated that the Animal Disease Act CAP 156 (Regulations) of 2022 reduced the fees on milk from 2,000 Tshs to 1,000 Tshs to facilitate trade. Given that in EAC fees and charges are yet to be harmonized the given fee is not discriminative. In the spirit of deepening integration, Tanzania supports the directives of the SCTIFI EAC SCTIFI 41/D28 that to resolve issues on fees and charges harmonization has to be undertaken in the Region. The URT further submitted that the fees submitted by Kenya are not comparable as Tanzania charges import fees while Kenya charges import permit processing fees. The data provided on the Kenya side could not be verified.
7. The 42nd SCTIFI noted that the Republic of Uganda and the Republic of Kenya are handling the dairy issues bilaterally with the United Republic of Tanzania whereby several meetings at the Ministerial and Summit levels have taken place and are at the final stages to be resolved. Also, the issue is being handled in the ongoing process of harmonization of fees, levies, and charges, and all the charges will be harmonized together with other charges. The SCTIFI hence guided that the NTB should be removed from the Time Bound program and allow the ongoing bilateral processes to be finalized. - Policy or regulatory NTB
- Yes
- Location
- Tanzania: Various State Agencies (Government institution)
- Reporting Country or Region
- Country specific trade issue
- No
- Date of incident
- 2014-12-11
- Status
- Resolved
- Date of resolution
- 2023-07-03
- Product Description
-
Dairy products
- Total value
- 0
- Date reported
- 2015-02-06 15:45
- Modified
- 2023-07-08 12:05
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