The Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Amelia Kyambadde, has called upon Ugandan traders to calm down over foreign traders dealing in petty trade until Cabinet comes out with a final solution for the issues raised.
The Minister made the call while appearing before the Parliamentary Trade Committee chaired by Kenneth Lubogo on Friday (April 21).
Traders in Nakasero Market took to the streets early this week protesting against involvement of Chinese traders in petty businesses that should be reserved for nationals.
Last year, the committee took a decision ordering the line Minister to stop all Chinese traders dealing in petty business as well as verifying and deporting illegal Chinese traders who are in the country without work permits.
“The issue of foreign traders; I did take action and presented the matter including issues raised by the committee to Cabinet chaired by the President of Uganda through a cabinet memo,” Kyambadde said.
“In that meeting, the cabinet ruled that we should form a sub committee to study the issues because when we reviewed all laws that we have in the country, there is no provision for the exclusion of foreign traders from doing trade in this country; there is no law,” the Minister assured committee members.
Kyambadde added that the Cabinet went further to discuss who a foreigner is in this regard, wondering whether foreigners would mean only Chinese traders.
She noted that the Cabinet sub-committee formed involves ministers from the Ministry of Kampala Affairs, Ministry of Local Government and Ministry of Tourism and Trade.
“Cabinet ruled that we should not take any actions; we have had four meetings so far and I wrote to the Speaker communicating the progress.”
The Minister however noted that verification has been going on and a number of Chinese have ever since been deported.