EAC
Sunday, May 10, 2015
EAC competition law due
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - The East African Community (EAC) member states are in the final stages of drafting a regional fair competition act to govern businesses, trade, commerce and competition in the region.
Speaking to East African Business Week last week in Dar es Salaam, the Fair Competition Tribunal (FCT), Head of Economic Affairs Nzinyangwa Mchany said currently the single country format may resolve issues of trade related cases from her homeland laws and regulations.
“The Fair Competition Tribunal (FCT) is an independent government body established under the Fair Competition Act, 2003 to promote and protect effective competition in trade and commerce and among other things to protect consumers from unfair and misleading market conduct,” he said.
He further said that the East African member’s states Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan through Fair Competition bodies will work shoulder to shoulder to come up with an act to govern businesses at the regional level.
Mchany added that the member states are eyeing to have a common fair competition act that will allow all member states to enjoy the East African Common Market Protocol and to ensure that the recent conflicts between Kenya and Tanzania on tourism sector will not recur in the near future.
He noted that the ultimate goal of the FCT act is to increase efficiency in the production, distribution and supply of goods and services to Tanzanians; however the establishment of Fair Competition Commission (FCC) was a significant step in Tanzania towards establishing a more competitive market economy.
Mchany underscored that the FCC makes necessary interventions to ensure that competition is allowed to regulate the competitive market and it also prevents significant market dominance, price fixing and extortion of monopoly rent to the detriment of the consumer and market instability.
He noted that in addition to implementing the FCA, the FCC is also charged with the responsibility of enforcing the Merchandise Marks Act of 1963, which is the legal instrument for fighting counterfeits.
According to him, the competition law co-exists with the sector specific regulatory framework and the regulatory framework is governed by the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority Act, 2001 (EWURA Act); The Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Act, 2001 (SUMATRA) Act; Tanzania Civil Aviation Regulatory Authority (TCAA) Act, 2003 and the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) Act, 2003.
Furthermore, for many years Tanzania’s economy was centrally planned until in the mid 1980s during which, the country embarked on a programme of trade liberalization, followed by the policy of privatizing state owned enterprises from 1992. Privatization policy supported private ownership and freer markets. In the late 1990s the Government began concerted efforts to create a viable regulatory framework in the country.
By Damas Makangale, Sunday, May 10th, 2015