The East African Business Council (EABC) has urged the East African Community (EAC) partner states to negotiate trade agreements with third parties as a bloc rather than individually.
The acting Executive Director of the EABC, Mr Adrian Raphael Njau, stressed that a unified front would increase negotiation strength, build trust and protect the region’s common trade policy.
“When countries adopt differing tariff concessions, it can lead to trade deflection and force others to limit the free flow of goods,” Mr Njau warned.
However, Mr Njau told The Arusha News that the region has in recent years seen a growing trend of individual EAC Partner States signing bilateral trade deals without adhering to CUP procedures. The EABC has expressed concern that such actions risked undermining the CET and weakening regional integration.
Attempts to negotiate trade agreements with non-African partners as a bloc have proven more difficult. The EAC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), for instance, took seven years to finalise but was only signed by Kenya and Rwanda in 2016, leading to Kenya eventually concluding a separate bilateral deal with the EU in 2023.
Similarly, the Kenya-UK EPA emerged after BREXIT when other EAC Partner States requested more time for negotiations.
Beyond the EU and UK, the EAC is also a party to several other frameworks, such as the EAC-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) and Kenya’s new deal with the UAE.
