Tanzania, a member of the East African Community (EAC), has denied accusations by its neighbours -- Kenya and Uganda -- that it was dragging its feet in the integration of the community.
The East Africa's largest country defended herself as a High Level Taskforce (HLTF) meeting on the future of the region ended on Friday in the Kenyan lakeside city of Kisumu without achieving much on its anticipated economic and political integration.
The head of Tanzanian delegation Uledi Mussa said his country has reservations just like any of the other four countries forming EAC.
"We are in a negotiating process. It could be unfair to say that my country is delaying the envisaged Common Market," Mussa told journalists in Kisumu, Kenya's third largest city.
He said Tanzania has issues needed to be addressed, adding that the matter had been blown out of proportion. One of the sensitive issues Tanzania is not comfortable with is land legislation polices.
While Kenya and Uganda allows private land ownership, the government owns all the land in Tanzania. Other outstanding issues include Competition and Consumer Welfare and Common Transport Policy.
The mandate of HLTF was supposed to end by December last year, but has been extended to April, this year.
The taskforce therefore has only three months to iron out the Partner States differences. Last week, Kenya's East African Cooperation Minister Jeffah Kingi said Partner States should not hang to sovereignty, as this could hinder the quicker integration.
The 10-day meeting drew over 150 participants from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda. The head of Kenyan delegation, Barrack Ndegwa, said HLTF has two more rounds of meetings that will be held in Burundi and Uganda, before April.
"We should address a number of outstanding issues before April. These include Articles dealing with Resident Permit and Common Transport Policy," said Ndegwa.
The mandate of HLTF was supposed to end by December last year, but was extended to April, this year. After this period, the Draft Protocol is expected to be finalized, and will be handed to the council of ministers.
"We expect the respective countries to ratify the protocol at the end of the year. The implementation is scheduled to commence by January, next year," he said.
There are over 130 million people in the five member countries of the EAC, and they would immensely benefit if the Common Market became effective.