Trade barriers between Uganda and Tanzania eliminated

Products originating from Uganda will now freely access the Tanzanian market after the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority changed to the Tanzania Bureau of Standards.

For long, Ugandan traders have been complaining that their certified products are required to go through another certification process when they get to Tanzania.

This has been affecting the transaction of business smoothly, but that is no more.

"According to the free trade agreement between East African Community (EAC) member states, once goods have been certified by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), they are not supposed to go through any other certification process in another member state, however, most goods from Uganda have always been blocked in Tanzania and required to go through another process of certification," said Godwin Muhwezi, the UNBS public relations officer.

Muhwezi added that this has been happening because the Tanzania standards body was handling both food and drugs and they had a different structure from UNBS.

By changing to the Tanzania Bureau of Standards, the UNBS Q-mark will now be recognised. They all have the same standards for products.

"Once your goods have been certified here in Uganda, you will trade freely in all the EAC states. We are calling upon all business people to make sure that their goods are certified to be able to enjoy international trade," noted Muhwezi.