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Customs agents making business at the Sirare border post impossible

Sunday August 27 2017
Kcc

Kenya’s milk products are still denied entry into Tanzania. PHOTO FILE | NMG

By Allan Olingo

Moses Ishirima is spending his third day at the Sirare border crossing, southwestern Kenya, waiting for his employer to send him $300 for a transit licence to enter Tanzania.

Ishirima’s truck is registered in Kenya but is carrying petroleum products from Eldoret, destined for northern Tanzania and therefore does not need a transit licence. The Customs officials insist it does.

“The Tanzania Customs officials keep shifting goalposts when it comes to transporting petroleum products into the country. They have introduced several fees and regulations which do not make sense,” Mr Ishirima says.

Northern Tanzania has traditionally depended on the Eldoret station of the Kenya Pipeline Company for petroleum products, since it is cheaper and more efficient to access as opposed to trucking them thousands of kilometres from the port of Dar es Salaam.

But Kenyan business people are now claiming that Tanzanian border officials are using haphazard levies and regulations to block petroleum products from Kenya from entering Tanzania through the Isebania and Sirare Customs border posts.

Tanzanian officials however, deny any ill-motive.

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“We have no problem allowing petroleum products from Kenya into our country as the drivers and business people are claiming. We have laid down regulations which must be met, and that could be the misunderstanding,” said a Tanzania Customs official at the Sirare border post, saying that further queries should be addressed to the Tanzania Revenue Authority in Dar es Salaam.

READ: Lobbies want trade barriers removed

Customs hurdles

At the Kenya-Tanzania traders forum in Dar es Salaam early this month, one of the issues raised was the Customs hurdles, with both countries’ traders citing the Sirare border post as one saddled with unnecessary regulations that hinder the smooth flow of goods across both sides.

When The EastAfrican visited the border post, there were more than 15 Tanzanian registered trucks detained by Kenyan Customs authorities, with an almost equal number enroute to Kenya detained on the Tanzanian side for issues ranging from the disregard of valid certificates of origin of products to charging of extra non-gazzeted Customs levies.

The business people also complained of arbitrary arrests when trying to ship maize from Tanzania into Kenya, noting that the blanket ban on maize exports by Tanzania was prohibitive and went against the free movement of goods, as enshrined in the Common Market Protocol.

“We have a very good market for grains in Kenya, which we have acquired legally in Tanzania. But we aren’t allowed to move them through the border forcing some of us to use the unofficial border crossings.

READ: Kenya seeks end to EAC import duty exemptions

It gets worse when you are caught because they will even confiscate the trucks. This isn’t how we should be doing business. Such export bans should be done in consultation, so that it doesn’t interrupt business and livelihoods,” said Adam Hichira, a Tanzanian grain trader.

In May this year, Tanzania’s Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa issued a gain export ban, and called on the traders to engage in value addition by milling the maize instead and exporting flour, which he said would earn them more.

“We thought the signing of the Common Market Protocol would better the terms of trade for us but it has become a nightmare. There has been an increase in arbitrary refusal by the various border Customs agents to recognise the certificate of origin or the standardised charges, despite a joint communiqué signed by EAC countries to reduce non-tariff barriers.

READ: Kenya seeks removal of dairy tariff

We feel the much touted integration is just on paper and not actualised at these border points,” said Charles Kahuthu, regional co-ordinator at the East African Chamber of Commerce.

The Kenyan businessmen also complained of the high cost of regulations, and especially the inefficiencies in clearance, with some saying that the Single Customs Territory document processing in Tanzania takes up to 10 days instead of the expected three days, which increases the cost of doing business.

In May at the EAC Heads of State summit in Dar es Salam, the leaders directed their respective ministers in charge of EAC Affairs to resolve long-standing non-tariff barriers (NTBs) issues.

“The Heads of State noted with concern the declining intra-EAC trade and directed the Council of Ministers to resolve the issues and report to the 19th Summit,” reads part of a joint communique issued after the summit.

In the meeting, it was reported that at least 19 non-tariff barriers remain unresolved and the Council was tasked to resolve all of them by August 30.

EAC member countries have been trading blame over NTBs since the coming into effect of the Common Market.

Recently, Kenya and Tanzania engaged in a vicious trade war culminating in last month’s ban on select products from being traded in their respective markets.

The two countries are expected to have a bilateral trade meeting on September 18 in Dar es Salaam to resolve the trade issues.

READ: Tanzania calls off Kenya trade row meeting

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