Kenya Association of Manufacturer, KAM CEO Phyllis Wakiaga during an Interview with journalists. [ photo / The Star ]
The manufacturers under the Kenya Association of Manufacturers are now asking the East Africa Community leadership to come up with a mutual recognition agreements on intellectual property rights that will boost cross-border trade.
According to the Kenya Association of Manufacturers chief executive Phyllis Wakiaga, the EAC partners have not been treating the illicit trade in the region with much attention it needs and thus paralyzing the current legal measures put in place.
“Often times, the issue of illicit trade in the individual EAC partner states are not treated with severity as it deserves. Other times, the vices are increasingly becoming sophisticated, using the newest technologies to evade detection, and consequently overwhelming current legal and regulatory measures put in place,” quoted Wakiaga by the Star.
The law, which is dubbed EAC Anti-Counterfeit bill, was drafted in 2011 but has since not been enacted into law forcing the individual countries to continuously revise and adjust their laws and regulations in dealing with the illegal trade.
The bill was established as a step to end the illegal trading and piracy through a clear definition of the terms circumvention, infringement and violation of laws, regulations, licensing regimes, taxation systems and embargoes, as key challenges facing the trade.
However, in an EAC Intellectual Property Rights Regime Study of 2017, counterfeiting and piracy are key factors that have undermined the concept of a free and open market in the region.