East Africa, EU trade talks suffer fresh setback

Last week, both the EALA and civil society groups came out to protest the proposed signing of the FEPA, saying the six months it envisages for concluding the full EPAs is not sufficient to tackle all the outstanding issues.

“We call upon our governments to guard against being stampeded into far-reaching and irreversible commitments by the promise of funds,” the civil society groups said in a joint statement on Sunday.

The group also wants regional negotiators to wait until the impacts of the custom union - which comes into effect next month, become clear and are taken into consideration before signing economic pacts with other regions.

EPAs targets 100 per cent of EU tariff lines and 74 per cent of EAC tariff lines and envisages 100 per cent liberalisation of the EU market with transition periods for rice and sugar.

It also proposes an 82 per cent liberalisation of EAC market (64 per cent in two years, 80 per cent in 15 years, and the remainder in 25 years).

“One good thing about FEPAs is that they do not include importation of products that the region can produce locally meaning all our sensitive industries like agriculture are protected,” said Dr Mbithi.