Tanzanian companies have been granted exemption on imported products that attract 35% duty, barely a month after the EAC Common External Tariff (CET) came into force.
In a legal notice signed by the EAC Council of Ministers chair Betty Maina, the Tanzania companies can now import, at zero percent for a year, raw materials and inputs for the manufacture of wire products.
The decision follows an application by Afriweld Industries, Tanuk Africa Ltd, MM Integrated Steel Mills and other firms for duty exemption.
This came just as the region started to implement the four-band Common External Tariff (CET) structure that came into force on July 1. The structure has rates of zero, 10, 25 and 35% for all products imported into the EAC.
Among the finished products the Tanzania companies want to import at zero percent are nails, welding electrodes, wire and wire mesh.
The main criteria used to classify goods at a 35% tariff are availability of the products and promotion of sectors with a long value chain — key sectors outlined in the EAC industrialisation strategy such as textiles and apparel, iron and steel, hides and skin, and chemicals.
The most affected imports that EAC partner states have up to consider, since July 1, include iron and steel, dairy and meat products, cereals, cotton and textiles, edible oils, and beverages and spirits. These items will now cost more to import in order to protect the local industries.
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