S. Sudan EAC admission historic, says minister

[Kigali, Rwanda, By James Karuhanga, TNT], The decision to admit South Sudan as the sixth member of the East African Community is one of the most “historic” by the EAC Heads of State Summit, Amb. Valentine Rugwabiza, the minister for EAC affairs has said.

Rugwabiza was Tuesday briefing journalists in Kigali after last week’s events at the seventeenth Ordinary Heads of State Summit in Arusha, Tanzania, at which South Sudan was admitted to the Community after more than three years of negotiations.

The minister, however, explained that the country will need some capacity building to be able to implement all the requisite membership instruments.

“There are some provisions that were part of their admission. These provisions do not appear in the communiqué. However, there was some flexibility provided to the Republic of South Sudan, and the reasons for that flexibility was to give them time and to also let them acquire enough capacity to be able to implement programmes and provisions of the EAC Treaty,” Rugwabiza said.

She said Juba was provided with a transition period of three years before implementing the Customs Union.

“We did recognise that they don’t have sufficient capacity to do that now. On the other hand, we need to think, as Rwandans, within those three years, the Republic of South Sudan will adopt exactly the same common external tariff which will make it much easier (to trade). It gives sufficient time to both our industries and societies to get prepared,” the minister said. Read more The New Times.