By Watera,
EAC REPORT:
Uganda is considering to lay trade embargoes on some goods that are coming from Kenya to Ugandan markets, Hon. Kadaga has said.
According to Kadaga, the proposal to prohibit goods from Kenya was approved during a cabinet meeting at the State House on Monday December 13.
The minister for East African Affairs further noted that the agriculture ministry is in the process of identifying and making the list of all products that will not be allowed in Uganda.
“We have been too patient. In the past, we have not reciprocated, but now we are going to. This has gone on for too long and within a short time they too will understand what we are going through,” Kadaga warned.
Kenyan traders have interpreted the decision as a reciprocal to Kenya which for the longest time has been at loggerheads with Uganda over some goods.
Since December 2019, Uganda and Kenya have not been in good economic terms following a move by Kenya banning importation of Ugandan milk products, poultry and maize products over substandard productions.
In July 2020, Ugandan sugar was outlawed from Kenya’s market going against an agreement that had earlier been struck by the two nations.
Then followed the ban of poultry products from Uganda; a ban that has lasted for nearly a year now. Kenya, in its argument stated that some products from the neighboring country were substandard.
This caused a huge economic impact on either countries which mutually depend on each other for bilateral business. The restrictions go against a Customs Union Protocol established by the East African Community (EAC) single market.
Because of these escalating trade wars, in July, Uganda chose Tanzania as its oil business partner ditching Kenya’s port of Mombasa. The landlocked country initially accounted for three-quarters of Mombasa port’s transit cargo.
Most of the fuel consumed in Uganda is trucked through Kenya via the Port of Mombasa which is the main distributor according to John Friday, the assistant commissioner for petroleum supplies.
This went against a trade pact that was earlier reached between officials from Kenya and their Ugandan counterparts.
