Tanzania has excluded foreign nationals to possess and exploit mainly small -scale companies, which generate concern and a recoil of neighboring Kenya.
The new directive prohibits them from 15 sectors, including mobile money transfers, tour guide, small-scale mining, purchase shelter on the farm, beauty salons, curioschinkels and the setting up of radio and TV activities.
Minister of Trade Selemani Jafo explained that foreigners were increasingly involved in the informal sector and areas better filled by Tanzanians.
Locally, the move is generally welcomed in the midst of growing concerns that foreigners, including Chinese nationals, are smaller on smaller transactions.
Last year, traders of the bustling Kariakoo shopping area of Dar Es Salaam strike to protest against aggressive taxes and unfair competition from Chinese traders.
“We welcomed this decision because it protects the livelihood of Tanzanian traders,” Severine Mushi, the head of the Kariakoo Traders’ Association, told the Citizen newspaper.
Violators risk fines, six months in prison and loss of visas and work permits.
Jafo added that he hoped that the prohibition, announced on Monday, would also encourage foreigners to invest in large -scale companies.
But it is with anger in Kenya.
The trade committee of the National Assembly Bernard Shinali warned that the move could activate mutual restrictions, reported Keny’s Daily Nation.
“There are also many Tanzanians who work on our mining sites,” the newspaper quoted him.
“It is clear that Tanzanians have gone too far and we have to cut ties with them.”
Shinali said that Kenya’s parliament would call for the Handelsminister to shed more light on the case.
Veteran Kenyan hotelier Mohammed Hersi also asked Tanzania’s move to limit professions for foreigners.
“Sometimes it is important to concentrate on the larger whole … Protectionism will never help a country to thrive,” he said on X.
Many other Kenians have also expressed their concern about social media, which describe Tanzania’s policy as a major challenge for regional integration.
“Tanzanians do all kinds of small companies in Kenya without any obstacle. It is clear that Tanzania has never been serious about having the EAC work,” a person posted on X.
Tanzania and Kenya have experienced periodic political and economic tensions.
The implementation of Tanzania of protective rates and import ban has criticized its regional partners in the past.
In May, Kenya’s Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi, who lived, worked, worked or worked in Tanzania, something he noticed when he emphasized the need to retain cordial relationships.
He started on diplomatic tensions around the treatment of Tanzania of Kenyans who had gone to Dar es Salaam to observe the Betr user process of opposition leader Tundu Lissu.
Several of them were deported while prominent Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi, together with Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaaire, was missing and later reported tortured and sexually abused.
Tanzania will hold general elections in October, whereby the ruling CCM party is expected to retain power.
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