Nuclear regulators in Kenya and Tanzania have set up a joint Technical Working Group to develop a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) on radioanalysis certification of foodstuffs, a move meant to ease bilateral trade by cutting duplicate checks at the border.
The Kenya Nuclear Regulatory Authority (KNRA) and the Tanzania Atomic Energy Commission (TAEC) announced the working group after a weeklong meeting in Nairobi last week, where officials from the two agencies tabled proposals on closer cooperation. KNRA Director General James Keter and TAEC chief executive Prof Najat Kassim Mohammed signed a pact on Friday, October 23. They said the group has three months to finish its work, which will culminate in a memorandum of understanding between the two agencies.
The initiative aims to harmonise regulatory requirements, align conformity assessment procedures and make it easier to move goods across the common border without lowering safety standards. Radioanalysis is used to find and measure radioactive substances in materials, including food, to verify that products meet radiation safety requirements.
Under a mutual recognition arrangement, a certificate issued by one regulator would be accepted by the other, so the same consignment would not need to be tested again.
Mr Keter said there has been “hue and cry over trade barriers”, which the agencies are determined to help remove.
The stakes are high for both economies. Bilateral trade between Kenya and Tanzania reached $860.3 million, about Sh111.1 billion, last year, covering all goods rather than only food. Food forms an important part of the relationship, with Kenya importing agricultural products from Tanzania while Kenyan producers and manufacturers supply the Tanzanian market. For traders, differences in certification requirements and procedures add administrative hurdles, and experts say such delays raise transport costs and can spoil perishable goods.
The agreement builds on wider efforts to remove non-tariff barriers between the two neighbours, whose trade has been disrupted by disputes in the past. During President William Ruto’s state visit to Dar es Salaam in May, the two countries signed a series of agreements, including one on mutual recognition of sanitary and phytosanitary certificates for items such as milk, meat and fresh produce, and one on harmonising standards between the Kenya Bureau of Standards and its Tanzanian counterpart to avoid duplicate inspection at border points such as Namanga and Holili.
The success of the new initiative will depend on the working group agreeing on practical procedures that both countries can apply while meeting internationally recognised safety standards.
