SOUTH SUDAN STILL MILES AWAY FROM EAC CUSTOMS

 

South Sudan remains far away from the East African Community (EAC) customs integration.

Thanks to budget constraints, this has impacted the country's customs administration from full integration  with the EAC Customs Union.

The drawback is contained in a report tabled before the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) last week.

The situation has been compounded by disparities in policy, legal and regulatory frameworks in South Sudan with EAC.

The report by the Eala Committee on Communication,Trade and Investment was debated at the on-going Eala sitting in Arusha.

The Customs Union is the first integration milestone and a critical foundation of the EAC which has been in force since 2005. 

It is a free trade zone (zero duty) for goods and services where imports from outside are subjected to the same tariff.

But since Juba joined the bloc in 2016, the customs integration  process has been rather slow for the country which continues to address security challenges.  

For instance, the Customs Automation and EAC Electronic Cargo Tracking System are not in place. 

Presently all documentation is paper-based and there is no equipment and customs information system in place.

"This state of affairs poses challenges to operations between South Sudan and other partner states which are already operating automated systems", the report said.

Despite the EAC allocating a budget for capacity building of the country's customs officials in 2018/19, no funds were available for the exercise. 

The grace period for the country to commence implementation of the EAC Customs Union instruments ended in October 2019. 

To date, the country has not formally communicated its request for an extension of the grace period.

The committee called on the Juba authorities to prioritize its efforts fully on mainstreaming the country into the EAC Customs Union. 

Juba was also urged to expedite the necessary reforms of incorporating the country's customs service into the National Revenue Authority.

The EAC secretary general Peter Mathuki said the organization will assist South Sudan in automation of its customs services. 

This would enable the land-locked, world's newest nation to clear off its trade commodities more efficiently.

The EAC boss during his recent visit to Jubai said this was one of the intervention measures to fully integrate the country into EAC. 

South Sudan, which joined EAC six years ago,has largely remained behind in the integration process.

With the exception of nine members to the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala), there is a paucity of its nationals in EAC staff ranks.

In 2017 though, it nominated a judge to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ), the judicial organ of the Community.