EAC joins war on fake goods

East African community's Secretary General, Juma Mwapachu

The East African Community has announced plans to devise more reliable ways of stopping counterfeit goods from swamping and causing havoc in its three founding partner states, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

The community's Secretary General, Juma Mwapachu, said measures towards the desired goal would include reviewing a number of laws and regulations, among them the EAC Competition Act that deals with consumer protection, public procurement, monopolistic practices and tendencies.

Also lined up for review by the five-member regional economic bloc are regional legislation on standardisation and quality assurance, metrology and testing.

Mwapachu made the announcement at a signing ceremony yesterday of a Memorandum of Understanding between the EAC and the Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF).

Under the agreement, which was signed in Dar es Salaam, the ICF will help the regional bloc in the war against piracy and imported fake products.

"The counterfeiting problem has now become organised crime in East Africa and new pieces of legislations must be instituted and enforced in each of the three countries within the next six months to arrest the situation," noted the EAC chief executive.

He said that, after existing policies are exhaustively assessed and evaluated and uniform laws are recommended, the EAC General Assembly would endorse them for immediate application.

The new laws would impose heavy penalties, with all those found with counterfeit products facing criminal charges in courts of law, he added.

He explained that swelling volumes of fake goods had led to a number of closures in the industrial sector, mainly because of declining sales and loss of market.

Elaborating, Mwapachu observed that the development had an adverse effect on people's health and general well-being, denied the Government badly needed revenue and thus impeded the growth of the national economy.

Under the pact, the EAC will launch an ICF-funded project aimed at creating public awareness on fake products and attracting investors by improving the legal system, governance, and infrastructure.

"We need to ensure that our investment environment is conducive for doing business and attracting investment.

Our partnership with ICF underlines our determination to bring trading activities within the rule of law and compete as a global trader," noted Mwapachu.

He said the respective governments would strengthen security at all borders points to ensure that no product leaves or enters a particular country without being thoroughly screened for quality.

Speaking at the ceremony, ICF Chief Executive Officer Omari Issa said problems caused by the production, distribution and sale of counterfeit goods were hard to deal with and exact a heavy price on industry, governments and society generally.

He said fake goods represent a disincentive to investment and innovation, adding: ``The ICF is committed to finding practical solutions to the challenges of doing business in Africa and we welcome the opportunity to work with the EAC to find the necessary solution to ensure a healthy and dynamic trading environment to attract new investments.``

The signing of the MoU comes at a time when there is an outcry in Tanzania over the influx of fake products, mainly shoddy imports from parts of Asia and the Far East.