EAC leaders meet to ease free movement of goods during COVID-19

NAIROBI, Kenya May 12 – Continued free movement of goods and the management of the cross-border spread of Covid-19 were top agenda in Tuesday’s meeting of the East African Community (EAC) Heads of State and Government.

In the virtual meeting convened by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, the current EAC Chairperson, the leaders agreed to prioritise the implementation of measures that will ensure uninterrupted cross-border movement of goods even as the region continues to battle Covid-19.

The leaders who included Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) and Salva Kiir Mayardit (South Sudan) acknowledged the challenge posed by cross-border trade in the fight against Coronavirus, especially the emergence of truck drivers as a high risk carrier population.

The Heads of State therefore tasked their respective state agencies responsible for health, transport and EAC affairs to roll-out border screening and testing measures especially for truck drivers that do not compromise cross-border movement of goods.

President Uhuru Kenyatta emphasized the need for collective EAC interventions against the global Covid-19 pandemic.

“A unified stand is what we need to combat this pandemic in the region,” President Kenyatta told his regional peers, adding that contact tracing had helped Kenya to isolate and treat those infected by the virus.

“We continue to actively enforce contact tracing which has proved to be very effective in identifying those who have come into contact with infected persons,” President Kenyatta said.

The Heads of State expressed satisfaction with measures taken so far by regional governments in managing Covid-19 and thanked the EAC Secretariat as well as the Council of Ministers for ensuring the region is able to minimize cross-border spread of the virus while ensuring uninterrupted movement of goods.

The leaders acknowledged the slowdown caused by the global pandemic on the region’s key economic sectors and urged member states to prioritize local production of essential supplies needed to combat Covid-19.

Further, the Heads of State encouraged EAC countries to invest more in agricultural production, agro-processing and value addition so as to empower the sector to act as an import substitute in this period when global trade is suppressed by the current public health crisis.

The leaders singled out Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as the sector with the highest potential to cushion the region against adverse economic effects of the global Coronavirus pandemic and recommended the establishment of special purpose financing schemes to support the sector.

The Heads of State thanked development partners including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) for their continued support to EAC states in combating the virus.