EPA Review Annex Documents - DFID

is only just about to conclude an interim agreement. There are several other challenging
issues that remained to be agreed.
East African Community
Originally part of the ESA group, Kenya, Tanzania, 40 Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda
started to explore the possibility of negotiating a separate EPA in August 2007. 41 This
movement was explained by the possibility of trade disruptions if the broad ESA group
did not sign an agreement by the end of 2007. However, the split off group had problems
since the beginning.
Tanzania joined the EAC Customs Union in 2005, having previously negotiated on the
SADC EPA. However it opposed certain proposals by other EAC members which would
have allowed signing an EAC deal. In fact, the differences between Tanzania and the
rest of the EAC members also played some role in the slow pace of ESA negotiations.
Eventually, in November 2007 the EAC signed an interim agreement with the EU.
However, the problem of the configuration of the group remained. In the middle of the
negotiations, there were several movements to form a wide free trade area
comprehending COMESA and SADC.
The issue of the standstill clause was also present in the negotiations. The EC said that
it was open to discuss it but only in the process towards reaching a full EPA. However, in
topics such as rules of origin and cumulation criteria, EAC considered that it needed to
consult ESA and SADC groups to ensure similarity.
Negotiations on EAC common market were launched in April 2008, scheduled to be
operating in 2010. The possibility of establishing a monetary union was also considered,
as well as installing a common regional quality standard.
Both parties agreed by mid 2008 to formulate new texts in the full EPA for the standstill
clause, export duties and the MFN clause. However, they considered that more
negotiations were required on antidumping and countervailing measures, safeguards
and the infant industry. Furthermore, the EAC wanted to analyse and look for common
interests between members in services liberalisation before opening negotiations.
The issue of export tariffs and the MFN clause continued to be problematic at the
beginning of 2009. EAC believed that all developing countries should be excluded in
order to promote South-South trade, while the EC considered that the exclusion of ACP
and the rest of the African countries are sufficient to assure regional integration.
Negotiations remained slow and dependent on the EAC integration process. Tanzania
continued to object to a national identity document, access to and use of land, as well as
permanent resident inclusion in the EAC Common Market protocol. However, by mid
2009, COMESA, EAC and SADC agreed to establish a single custom union although it
still does not have an implementation date. Negotiations with the EU remained slow in
services, TRIs and rules of origin.
40 Tanzania was originally part of the SADC EPA negotiation group.
41 Trade Negotiations Insights, Vol. 6, No. 5, September 2007.
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