East African Community (EAC) partner states—Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda have adopted measures on Common External Tariff (CET) to boost local production in the region. The duty remission measures are strictly specific for the gazetted manufacturers who have applied for the importation of a specific amount of input, product at the reduced import duty rate. First, where EAC partner states agreed to stay application of the EAC CET rate and apply a higher duty rate for the imported products. The second scenario is where EAC partner states agreed to stay application of the EAC CET rate and apply a lower duty rate for imported products. The decisions to stay application of the EAC CET rate and apply a higher duty rate are aiming at stimulating local production by safeguarding manufacturing of that particular product against similar cheap imports.

Source: The Star July 11, 2020 09:00 UTC