The East African community Common External Tariff on cereals: an analysis of stakeholder perceptions
No hay miniatura disponible
Fecha
Título de la revista
ISSN de la revista
Título del volumen
Editor
Resumen
Descripción
This study analyses the perceptions of various stakeholders on the appropriateness of the Common External Tariff (CET) on cereals in the East African Community (EAC). The issues being debated are both the statutory level of the CET and its temporary adjustments. Field interviews were undertaken in three of the five EAC countries to solicit stakeholder views. It was found, as anticipated, that stakeholders do hold different views on these two elements of the CET. These differences are found to be linked to the sizes of the producing and processing sub-sectors, in the case of individual countries, and to the perceived gains and losses in the case of stakeholders within countries. Stakeholders associate the appropriate CET on maize to food security concerns, but with some arguing for high CET (for selfsufficiency) and others for low CET (for low consumer price). For rice and wheat, import dependency is large and so there is some convergence in views towards a lower CET, but with differe nces among farm and processing sub-groups. Lack of convergence on the issues can be related to the poor functioning of the regional market, both real and perceived due to reasons such as cross-border trade facilitation and export bans. These actual and perceived problems need to be addressed through more consultations of stakeholders from across the region, backed up by good quality analyses on the issues.