EAC
East African Community
Meetings called to negotiate a collective trade agreement between the EAC and the United Kingdom have failed to make any substantive progress.
Kenya has welcomed its neighbours in negotiating fora post-Brexit trade deal with the UK for a duty and quota-free market.
Tanzania is looking to protect its locally-made goods in the trade negotiations with Britain that are underway.
Rwanda has been chairing the EAC negotiations with the UK and is also pursuing a bilateral post-Brexit trade deal with the UK that aims to replicate the European Union’s “Everything but Arms" scheme.
With just four months to the expiry of the current agreement, ideological differences among member states are hampering the progress of the bloc’s negotiations.
Negotiations over a trade agreement between Kenya and the US have resumed. The deal could undermine African common markets and flood Kenya with cheap maize and chicken.
Kenya’s need to export value-added agricultural products dominated the first round of talks with America after its formal launch on Wednesday last week.
Limited funding for EAC integration and low public awareness about the Treaty Protocols and their implementation framework are bottlenecks for the 150 million-strong population to exploit opportunities it presents.
Kenya should abandon or, at the very least, postpone the United States-Kenya Free Trade Agreement negotiations to a later date, civil society groups say in letter to the AfCFTA Secretariat.
Kenya’s negotiations for a free trade deal with America has received opposition from organisations drawn from across Africa.
The Ministry of Trade should ensure that eventual agreements promote Uganda’s aspiration for industrialisation and provide the policy space for government to be able to use a range of trade policy instruments.
Under market integration, 22 countries out of 28 have now signed the TFTA Agreement, while eight have signed and ratified.
Namibia is the latest to ratify the TFTA agreement. Seven countries are expected to complete the ratification process before the end of this year paving the way for its implementation.
The FTA initiative should be seen in the context of the Trump administration’s determination to pursue bilateral deals to enhance reciprocity and American gains.
Kenya’s proposed free trade deal with the US has put it in the crosshairs as critics say the planned bilateral agreement would be a breach of regional and continental trade protocols.
The United Kingdom is seeking to enter into a trade pact with the East African Community member countries.
Kenya surrendered its customs space to the bloc in 2005 when it signed its customs union protocol. The rulebook compels member states to negotiate all trade pacts jointly.
Pakistan is already in touch SACU, ECOWAS and EAC to negotiate trade agreements and also plans to take advantage of the opportunities that exists under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.
Resolving these issues is crucial for EAC’s approach to opportunities from the African Continental Free Trade Agreement as a bloc.
Namibia has become the eighth country to ratify the Tripartite Free Trade Area. Six more countries are required for the agreement to enter into force.
