The East African Community is strategizing its plan to remove barriers that are considered responsible for low intra-regional trade.

Around 200 experts, under the initiative from all the partner states would be trained on the best skills to fight trade bottlenecks in the region. The apex body of private sector organizations, The East African Business Council(EABC), will spearhead the programme in collaboration with the International Trade Centre (ITC).

The four-year initiative took off in Tanzania’s Arusha on April 8 with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two organizations. This was followed by the commencement of the first such training on trade facilitation for business associations and trade experts from the region.

“Trade barriers remain high in East Africa. The private sector has to work with the governments to address this,” the executive director of EABC, Peter Mathuki lamented. This, what he believes, has been compounded by delays and red tape which hampered the movement of goods across borders, as reported by PML Daily.

Within the East African Community bloc, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda are among the first WTO members to ratify the TFA. Tanzania, Burundi and South Sudan are yet to ratify the agreement.

Source: Devdiscourse

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