By. Admin
Ugandan manufacturers under their umbrella body, Uganda manufacturers association (UMA) are decrying the continued blockage of Ugandan goods from entering the Kenyan market saying this is a violation of the EAC common market protocol
Addressing a news conference today in Kampala, the executive director UMA Danile Birungi says, its been over a year since Kenya blocked Ugandan goods from entering Kenya giving excuses of quality, smuggling, instituting permits which Ugandan manufacturers say are out of the agreed on regional market protocol.
Though officials from the two countries have meet several times to discuss the matter, not positive response has been achieved.
Now that the country has lost over USD.120M as a result of the impurse, Ugandan manufacturers are giving their government up to 25th of this month to take action or else they threaten to seek redress from the EAC court.
Among the goods manufactured in Uganda being blocked from entering the Kenyan market include, milk, sugar, gas cylinders among others. This has further seen factories scale down on production which has translated to loss of over 114000 jobs.
Despite persistent trade distortions orchestrated against Uganda, Uganda’s exports to Kenya had been increasing exponentially until 2017, when Uganda managed to report for the first ever trade surplus with Kenya. Since then, the republic of Kenya has intensified Non- Tariff barriers with fears of possible takeover of the trade balance of power. Such acts contract the EAC common market commitments.
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