Building capacity to help Africa trade better

Assessing the implementation of the East African Community Common Market: A preliminary scoping study

Trade Reports

Assessing the implementation of the East African Community Common Market: A preliminary scoping study

Assessing the implementation of the East African Community Common Market: A preliminary scoping study

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Five years have now elapsed since the Heads of State of the five East African Community (EAC) partner states (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda) signed the Protocol on the Establishment of the East African Community Common Market on 20 November 2009. In those five years, intraregional trade has grown significantly from US$ 3,148.7 million in 2008 to US$ 5,470.7 million in 2012, an increase of 73%. However, reports of continued delays and other impediments to the integration process continue to crop up amid the undoubted progress that has taken place.

It is therefore an opportune moment to examine the extent to which the Common Market Protocol has been implemented in order to determine whether the fears were justified or not and whether the use of flexible, ambiguous provisions has been a hindrance or a catalyst to the process of integration. Identification of the achievements as well as the challenges faced along the way can also be of assistance in charting a way forward for the deeper integration that is underway within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) regions.

Given the broad scope of sectors covered by the Common Market Protocol, the aim of this paper is not to engage in an in-depth analysis of all its key components but to provide a preliminary analysis, from a legal perspective, of a selected number of those components, with the main emphasis being on the provisions that exist to facilitate the free movement of goods. This will lay the ground for subsequent, more detailed research on the various aspects of the Common Market.


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