East Africa Community focuses on $6.4bn in intra-trade
Arusha. It was a sweet resolution expected of any meeting of advocates of regional business integration.
The East African Community (EAC) should double intra-regional trade to 24 per cent from the current 12 per cent in the next five years.
Delegates to the high profile EAC Business and Investments Summit ended their forum yesterday full of optimism but aware of a raft of challenges ahead.
Intra-EAC trade, estimated to be $3.2 billion last year, will have to hit $6.4 billion by 2024 if wishes were to become reality.
However, that can largely be attained if the persistent non-tariff barriers (NTBs) are squarely addressed and dealt with.
Figures of the remaining trade barriers keep on fluctuating with each EAC allied institution having its list. The East African Business Council (EABC), which organized the two-day summit says there were between 17 to 20 ‘sticky’ NTBs yet to be tackled.
Trade within the region would also be boosted through diversification of production, the delegates who included company CEOs agreed.
Under this, each country would produce goods on high demand for the rest of the region given its comparative advantage.
Other strategies suggested to boost trade include flexibility in border controls, promotion of regional value chains and development of regional local content.
The summit admitted that the $6.4 billion target for intra-regional trade by 2024 was a monumental task, at least for now, given the persistent bottlenecks.
Trade within the six nation EAC bloc catapulted to $3.2 billion last year from $2.7 billion in 2016 and $2.9 billion in 2017, thanks to some simplified procedures.
Business leaders maintain the positive statistics have not led to reduction of EA trade with the outside world in favour of increased intra-regional trade, now standing at 12 per cent.
The company CEOs and business consultants while setting the target yesterday observed the governments of the EAC partner states were equally instrumental.
