Juba Retail Dispute Tests South Sudan's Regional Trade Commitments
Uganda has asked South Sudan to address concerns about restrictions on its small traders after the Juba County caretaker commissioner urged foreign nationals to leave some retail activities to South Sudanese citizens.
Commissioner Kalisto Lado named small food sales and motorcycle taxi services among the activities he wanted reserved for locals. He later clarified that he was not expelling foreigners from South Sudan and encouraged foreign investment in wholesale business and industry. Uganda's East African Community Affairs Minister Rebecca Kadaga called for transparent, fair treatment through legal and diplomatic channels and invoked the EAC common-market framework, according to Eye Radio.
Public accounts remain uneven. The commissioner's comments and subsequent clarification are reported, but South Sudan Press has not obtained a signed county directive, a list of affected licence categories, a transition period or a written legal basis. Traders should not be told that a nationwide expulsion order exists on the available evidence. South Sudan's chargé d'affaires in Uganda has also sought to reassure traders, according to Ugandan reporting.
Analysis: Governments can pursue jobs for citizens, but sudden or ambiguous instructions can disrupt supplies, rents and livelihoods on both sides of the border. The legal questions concern which level of government may regulate trading licences, what national law permits, and how the EAC common-market obligations apply. Those questions need the actual written rule and legal responses from both governments, not slogans about an open or closed market.
Juba County should publish the directive if one exists and state whether current traders can continue operating while it is reviewed. Uganda and South Sudan should give traders a clear route for complaints and prevent harassment while the two governments discuss the policy. We will update this report when the written instrument and official responses are available.
Sources: Eye Radio on Uganda's appeal; commissioner's clarification; Ugandan report on the South Sudanese envoy's response.