Abuja, Dec. 27, 2023: East African Community member states are trading more with countries outside the bloc owing to persistent trade disputes and non-tariff barriers (NTBs), which are choking intra-regional trade as well as undermining the regional integration agenda.
Disclosures by the EAC Secretariat through its final draft Trade and Investment Report (2022) shows a new trend where member countries are doing increased business with the West African countries, Japan, USA, India, China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“Despite achieving the above integration milestones, intra-EAC trade remains low at 15 percent in 2022 due to, among others, the imposition of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) by partner states. The persistence of NTBs continued to negatively affect intra-EAC trade,” says Peter Mathuki, Secretary-General, EAC Secretariat.
“Nevertheless, efforts have been put in place to resolve the existing NTBs and encourage partner states to refrain from imposing new ones in line with the commitment under the EAC Customs Union Protocol. The Secretariat in collaboration with partner states will work towards addressing barriers that impede trade with the objective of increasing Intra-EAC trade in the coming years.”
So far, the EAC has resolved 23 out of 33 NTBs.
Provisional data shows that EAC imports from the UAE surged by 81.9 percent to $8.01 billion in 2022 from $4.4 billion in 2021 and imports from India increased by 20.9 percent to $5.85 billion from $4.84 billion in the same period.
EAC’s total imports from China grew by 16.6 to $10.98 billion from $9.42 billion while imports from the US increased by 15.7 percent to $1.51 billion from $1.31 billion.
Imports from the rest of the world grew by 19.1 percent to $53.89 billion in 2022 from $45.25 billion in 2021, whereas imports from Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) grew by 18.5 percent to $4.64 billion from $3.92 billion.
On the other hand, EAC’s total exports to the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) region increased by 48.5 percent to $136.1 million in 2022 from $91.6 million in 2021 while exports to Japan increased by 35.9 percent to $188.2 million from $138.5 million in the same period.
Exports to Africa increased by 10.7 percent to $8.93 billion from $8.06 billion.
Total intra-EAC trade grew by 11.2 percent to $10.91 billion in 2022 from $9.81 billion in 2021 but the percentage share of the intra-EAC trade to EAC total trade stood at 15 percent in 2022.
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