ARUSHA: Draft Phytosanitary Bill in the offing

A draft EAC Sanitary and Phytosanitary Bill is being finalised and will be tabled before the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) sometime this year.

The Bill is aimed to ensure agricultural products traded conformed with the international standards through application of the required health and safety measures.

“Sanitary and phytosanitary measures have become an important topic of debate in international trade as well as regional integration,” said the Deputy Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC) Christophe Bazivamo during a regional consultative meeting in Nairobi last week to finalise the draft document.

He acknowledged that agricultural trade continues to represent a notable portion of intra-EAC total trade flows and urged the EAC partner states to adequately enforce issues around SPS measures and standards.

Following the adoption of the SPS Protocol in 2013, he explained, a strong foundation for supporting its implementation has been laid and that includes finalization of SPS measures and setting in motion the process of developing the SPS Bill, which will facilitate effective implementation and enforcement of the protocol.

Source: All Africa