Involve Parliament in EPAs, Ndugai advises government

Dodoma. National Assembly Speaker Job Ndugai has asked Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa to bring the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) to Parliament so they can be debated before the government decides whether or not to sign them.

In his remarks after the Premier had adjourned the august House on Friday, Mr Ndugai noted that Members of Parliament (MPs) would have valuable input on the matter.

His call comes only a few days after members of the business community also asked the government to involve them in deliberating the documents.

They blamed the government for sidelining them in the last ten years during which it has been consulting with the European Union (EU) through the East African Community.

The EPAs – to be signed between the EAC bloc on one side and the EU on the other, seek to guarantee the former duty-and-quota free access to the latter’s market in exchange for a gradual opening of up to 80 per cent of East Africa’s market to European products.

All EAC members have been negotiating the Agreement since 2007 leading to conclusion of negotiations in 2014 where it was initialled, translated and legal drafting concluded.

So far, it is only Kenya and Rwanda that have signed the document ahead of the previous October 1, 2016 deadline but being a single customs territory, all the other EAC members – Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and South Sudan -- must also sign the pact to make it enforceable.

But, during their recent meeting in Dar es Salaam, EAC leaders decided to delay signing of the pact until early next year so as to give themselves three more months of deliberating on the matter.

“We have given ourselves three months to further discuss the signing of the EPA agreement, and we will meet in January 2017 over this issue,” President Magufuli, who is also the EAC chairman, said at a meeting of fellow heads of state in Dar es Salaam earlier this month.

Speaking in Parliament on Friday, Mr Ndugai said the pact should be brought to the National Assembly so that the lawmakers would appropriately advise the government on the way forward.

He commended President John Magufuli for deferring the signing to next year, saying it was an excellent exhibition of his love for the nation.