Economic Partnership Agreement is an agreement to remove taxes and duties for products from East Africa Community (EAC) member countries.
Kenya has signed and ratified the Economic Partnership Agreement. Uganda and Rwanda have just signed but not ratified. Burundi and Tanzania have not signed the agreement at all.
Tanzania has made excuses that she has to conduct her own research first to find out what will be the impact of the agreement on trade.
Burundi is not signing the EPA in protect against the trade embargo slapped on her. This was put in place after the country started experiencing political struggles.
East Africa’s largest export market currently is Europe.
The leading import countries for East Africa Community members are: China, India and European Union.
Upon signing the EPA, East Africa will lose $45 million in welfare while EU will have a $212 million gain in welfare.
In 2016, the majority of Tanzanian lawmakers voted against signing of the EPA.
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