South Sudan's integration into the East African Community (EAC) Customs Union will be under scrutiny next week.
The matter will be tabled before the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) during its plenary session in Arusha.
This follows a recent visit to the bloc's newest member by members of Eala Committee on Communication, Trade and Investment.
The report by the Committee will be tabled in the House on October 14th, according to a tentative programme released last week.
The report will shed light on progress so far made in integrating South Sudan Customs Administration into the EAC Customs Union.
South Sudan joined the EAC in 2016, becoming the sixth member, but has not been fully integrated into the bloc.
Besides the Customs Union and its nine members into Eala, its nationals are yet to join the ranks of the 400-strong staff of the Community.
A mission sent there by the EAC in early 2019 found out the country's Customs Administration lacked functional structures and limited manpower.
The team was dispatched to assess the country's preparedness so that it is streamlined into the EAC Customs arrangement.
Incidentally, it was found that the Customs department was aligned to the police administration in staff ranking "with no clear career progression arrangements".
Nonetheless, there had been capacity building training for the revenue staff through the support of the development partners.
The slow integration of Juba into the EAC has been partly attributed to the political turmoil which has prevailed there for years.
Recently the EAC secretary general Peter Mathuki said South Sudan nationals would be recruited under the on-going recruitment of new staff.
He said Juba would be assisted in the automation of its Customs services "to enable the partner state to clear off its trade commodities more efficiently".
This, he said, was one of the intervention measures to fully integrate the country into different segments of the EAC programmes.
"Automation of Customs and other agencies calls for swift intervention so as to facilitate trade ", he pointed out.
Unlike other EAC partner states the land-locked South Sudan's economy is much dependent on oil.
Its trade links with the wider EAC has been through the border with Uganda but whose routes are often attacked by armed bandits.
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