Efforts to have the four remaining East African countries join Kenya and Rwanda in signing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe have failed to bear fruit.
The six presidents of the EAC countries have, however, used the just concluded heads of State summit in Arusha to allow individual members to enter into trade pact with Europe.
That means the East African Customs Management Act (EACMA), the law that has prevented Kenya to seal such a deal on its own, will have to be repealed for Kenya to finally safeguard its trade relations with EU.
The law that recognises each of the member States as part of a single customs territory has been the reason EAC has been holding joint EPA negotiations with EU since 2007.
For a deal to be reached under EACMA, all the EAC member states have to sign the agreement as a bloc.
“The summit decided that the EAC engage the EU on the matter in the next four months to get more clarification on the pertinent issues of concern. Thereafter, partner states who wish to, may or may not sign the EPA,” reads the joint communique. It remains to be seen how the EU side reacts to that proposal.
Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi opted out of the deal leaving Kenya and Rwanda to enter into a special arrangement with the EU ahead of September 2016 deadline.
President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda had hinted to his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta in December 2017 that he was going to convene a ministerial council last year to revive the stalled talks to no avail.
In 2017, Kenya accused Tanzania and Uganda of being hesitant to join the rest of the EAC members in signing the agreement.
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