Dr. Anne Itto Leonardo. (Photo: Courtesy).

A member of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has reiterated calls on the South Sudan government to domesticate the EAC Treaty to shield its traders against regional trade barriers and enable them to freely export goods across borders.

Dr. Ann Itto spoke during a visit of EALA delegation to Juba as part of an assessment on the progress made by partner states in eliminating non-tariff (tax) barriers in the region.

The exercise is aimed at collecting information on the progress made by partner states in opening up their borders for free movement of goods and services in the region.

“We have identified, through this meeting with these representatives from the relevant institutions related to trade, the fact that South Sudan has not yet domesticated the East African Community Treaty.”

“Because it’s not domesticated, our laws regarding trade have also not been domesticated. And because of that, our goods will meet with difficulties when they cross the border.”

South Sudanese businessmen exporting fish to the DR Congo say they face multiple barriers in Uganda, including extortion, arrests, and detention in Uganda before reaching their destinations.

In May 2024, three South Sudanese fish traders were fined $7,000 and sentenced to three months in jail by a Ugandan magistrate for alleged breach of enforced license regulations, which restrict the traders to only use designated Ugandan trucks to transport their products through the country.

South Sudan has since ratified the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community, but until it is domesticated by the parliament, the country would not fully realize the benefits of regional integration.

A lawmaker representing the country at the regional parliament, Kim Gai, made a similar call on the country to expedite the domestication of the treaty, enabling traders to freely export goods across regional borders.

The bill is yet to pass through the cabinet and the parliament before receiving presidential assent to enact it into law. However, this process has been delayed due to competing priorities on bills related to the peace agreement.

Acknowledging the challenge posed by the pending customs duty law, the lawmaker emphasized that it has significantly affected all traders, particularly those exporting goods to East African countries.

Further, Dr. Itto called for prompt endorsement of a South Sudan-appointed monitoring committee tasked with overseeing the removal of non-tariff barriers in the region.

She added that the endorsement will enable the voices and recommendations of the committee to be respected.

“South Sudan is actually doing a good job in addressing non-tariff barriers in the sense that the committee for monitoring and dealing with non-tariff barriers has been set,” she told the media.

“The only problem is it has not yet been endorsed by the Council of Ministers. We really recommend that this committee be endorsed so that it can now exist legally, so that their recommendations or the issues they raise can be taken seriously.”

The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organization of eight (8) countries, including Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.