The writing is on the wall for counterfeiters and the warning from President Kibaki shows concern is being expressed from the highest levels of Government.
The East African Community Common Market brings together a potential combined market of 90 million consumers of goods and services. The various protocols by the five member states are meant to progressively make citizens live as one social entity, work and move freely within the area covered by the common border, and eventually, exist as a single political unit.
This means, counterfeiters, smugglers, pirates, intellectual property rights violators, and copyright thieves, will now affect all the 90 million East Africans, since respective national laws shall give way to common tariff regimes and policing authority. They are now the common enemy.
The trade in counterfeit products, especially medicines, electronic goods and dry cells, is a net drain of State coffers. Many such traders simply transfer their goods and services across current national borders and take umbrage in weak policing, judicial and oversight institutions.
The five EAC member States must enact a uniform law empowering various agencies to crackdown on dumping to save Sh40 billion. That, for instance, is the amount of money teachers say would ensure the Free Primary Education programme runs without a single hiccup.
Punitive penalties
The bloc should harmonise tariffs, strengthen Customs, and ensure punitive penalties on offenders. It is imperative, therefore, to fast track the EAC Anti-Counterfeit Bill, and EAC Customs Management Act.
These would pull the plug on nations that dump counterfeit goods such as Dubai, India and China, thereby bleeding East Africa of much-needed revenue, and sending local manufacturers into bankruptcy.
Source: The Standard | Online Edition
0 comments:
Post a Comment