The East African Community (EAC) Common Market Protocol (CMP) entered into force in 2010. Among others, the protocol consists of the services liberalisation commitments and provides for development of Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) to facilitate movement of labour and services in the region. The commitments relating to movement of natural persons providing services, i.e. Mode 4, were linked with those on movement of workers. MRAs covering accounting, architectural and engineering services were concluded by end of 2012. However, in 2014, state parties identified some discrepancies relating to trade in services in the CMP. The implementation of Mode 4 commitments had been a challenge. Some negotiations to amend the CMP are ongoing to resolve the issues of concern. An earlier tralac paper (click here to view) concluded that the linkage is not the challenge in itself but rather the lack of commitments to permit actual movement that is reflected in insufficient legal reforms.

This paper builds on these findings to provide trade data relating to movement of persons. In addition, it looks at the registration or practice licences issued to accounting, architectural, and engineering professionals; issuance of work permits to identify any implementation gaps and make recommendations. It is important to note that most of the information presented in this paper is based on desk analysis. The data available on various issues of interest is very patchy or missing, and is in aggregated format. This permits very limited analysis and it is difficult to draw any fair conclusions. For example, it is not possible to link data on work permits, registered professionals or arrival and departure information due to aggregated information. Therefore, the study only provides indicative information rather than reality and hence great care is required in using or interpreting the information presented.

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.