Assessment Of The Impact Of Non-Tariff Barriers On Customs Union Of East Africa Since 2005: A Case Of Tanzania

ABSTRACT 

The study focuses on the poor implementation of the CU of EA in Tanzania since 2005.As EAC approached a decade, trade across the community was hampered by trade barriers and hence no significant growth in trade was witnessed. Therefore, the study aims to examine the impact of NTBs on CU of EA in Tanzania since 2005 specifically to examine the general awareness on NTBs to Tanzanian, to assess the roadblocks, weighbridge and customs clearance procedures and to identify strategies to eliminate obstacles (NTBs). Methods of data collection were interviews, questionnaire, documentary and observation. Data were collected from 100 respondents including key informants representing officers dealing with customs. Purposive and randomly sampling design were used to select a representative sample. Data collected were analyzed by a Statistical Package for Social Scientist (SPSS) Version 16 with tools of Likert Scale Weighting, Multiple Response Choice Analysis and Simple statistics. Data were cross tabulated to percentages and frequencies. The findings of the study indicated that the awareness on NTBs to Tanzania exporters were highly positive but trade hampered by barriers like roadblocks, lengthily customs clearance and un- necessary weighbridges, where they lead to transit delay and hence count loss to trade volumes. It is therefore, recommended that the government of Tanzania should invalidate trade policies, hamonirsed the customs clearance procedures, create competitiveness political will and apply good governance ,either remove all trade obstacles for sustainability of EAC market and development of the community.