EABC jittery over Kenya’s recent deal with European Union

At the same time, the East African nation would be compelled to gradually lower import duty for goods from Europe.

However, EABC believes Kenya's move to liberalise tariffs with the EU can complicate taxation of goods imported into the region.

Adrian Njau, a trade and policy advisor with the Arusha-based organization, hinted on the likely distortion of the tariff regime for imported goods after the deal.

Although Kenya went ahead to sign the agreement on the principle of variable geometry, the move was not the best choice for the region.

"We would like to see all the East African Community (EAC) sign and implement the agreement as a bloc", he said during a Webinar.

This, Mr. Njau argued, would avoid distortion of the EAC Common External Tariff (CET) as Kenya commences liberalization of tariffs with the EU under the EPA deal.

The EAC partner states should collectively negotiate agreements with the third parties "to enhance mutual trust", he went on.

By negotiating and signing such agreements collectively, they would preserve the Customs Union "and common policy in the field of external trade".

Nairobi had argued that its go-it-alone move to enter into a bilateral agreement followed a bye received from a recent EAC Heads of State Summit.

The summit held on February 27th, 2021 directed that the partner states who want to sign and implement EPA can do so based on the principle of variable geometry.

In the past all the EAC member states were required to sign and ratify the EPA with the EU for it to come into force.

An agreement on the same reached by the EAC and the EU in 2014 after years of negotiations was subject to approval by all countries.

It later stalled as other EAC member states declined to endorse it even as Kenya -then the only middle income country - signed and ratified it.

While Tanzania and Uganda declined to approve the agreement for various reasons, Rwanda signed it but did not ratify the EPA.

During the signing of the agreement on June 26th, Kenya said that it was not betraying its fellow member states in the bloc this time around.

The largest economy in the region was only using a window opened up by the Heads of State which allowed the partner states to deal bilaterally with the EU.

The Webinar held on Thursday and which was organized by the EABC served as a platform to launch the EABC Policy Advocacy Agenda 2023/24.

One of the critical areas of focus for Agenda 2023/24 is the implementation of the EAC-CET 2022 Version.

John Bosco Kalisa, EABC executive director, told the Webinar that one of the achievements of the organization's advocacy was adoption of a 4-band EAC tariff structure.

The other is ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by the EAC member countries.

According to him, each partner state has committed to liberalize at least 78 sub-sectors of the seven agreed service sectors in the bloc.