Kenya and the European Union (EU) have exuded confidence that three East African countries yet to sign the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) will do so during the next month’s head of state and government summit, unlocking the current stalemate.

Kenya hopes her neighbours Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi will sign the trade protocol so that the region can enjoy duty and quota free market with EU.

“We have hopes that the rest of the EAC countries yet to sign so that we can move together as a bloc,” said Dr Chris Kiptoo principal secretary international trade on the phone.

Negotiations on the 14-year-old trade deal were concluded in 2015. EAC and EU  agreed to append signatures as well as ratify the same through their legislative structures.

Principal Secretary for East African Affairs, Betty Maina last week, during a public policy breakfast meeting on strategies to enhance Kenya’s competitiveness, said  that Kenya will continue accessing market under the EU Market Regulations of 2007 until otherwise.

Move together

Alessandro Tonoli, Trade advisor European Union Delegation to Kenya, in a statement, recently expressed optimism that all the five countries will sign the EPAs to avoid being locked out of the EU market.

Tonoli said that EAC Heads of State last year expressed willingness to move together as a bloc to continue enjoying the duty and quota-free market under the EU’s everything but arms initiative.

The Heads of state in the EAC region will have their next Ordinary Summit in Arusha on April, which will be preceded by various technical and council of ministers meetings.

“We fully respect this and want to support EAC regional integration. We understand that our partners need time to continue internal processes. The EU respects the decision making process in the region,” said Tonoli.

“On September 1, 2016 Kenya and Rwanda signed the EPA between the EAC and the EU. All EU Member States and the EU as such have also signed the Agreement. We are therefore a step closer to complete the signature process of such an historic agreement,” he said.

The deadline had been pushed from October 1, last year to February 1, this year. However, not all countries had signed.

Product taxes

According to analyst, Kenya stood to lose the most should remaining countries refuse to sign – it would be slapped with taxes on products entering the EU market.  This because unlike the four yet to sign, categorised as least developing countries and who will continue getting duty and quota-free EU market access, Kenya is the only one categorised as developing in the region.

According to the Economic Survey 2016, EU-Kenya trade stood at Sh145.9 billion making the EU Kenya’s biggest export destination. Exports include cut flowers, with Kenya controlling about 40 per cent, French beans, fruit, fish, textiles, coffee and tea.

Many challenges face the process with Rwanda, which has signed, yet to ratify the trade deal. Uganda has expressed commitment to sign but insists Tanzania must be brought on board while Burundi, facing political upheavals, has declined to sign the document demanding EU withdraws the sanctions it imposed last year.

Tanzania has delayed full actualisation of the trade pact claiming the agreement would have serious consequences for its revenues and growth of its industries. It also demands renegotiation of some EPA clauses, for example, the European Development Fund (EDF).

EU, Tanzania argues needs clarification on loses to be incurred after liberalisation of trade as provided under the trade protocol. During next month’s summit, Adan Mohyammed, the Cabinet Secretary Industry, Trade and Cooperative says various options could emerge.

Trade implementation

“The first option is that all the countries can agree to sign the document; the yet to sign countries can resolve to ask EU to allow Kenya proceeds with implementation of the trade deal as the others wait to append their signature. And finally, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi can completely decline to append their signature and will still be allowed to trade with EU based on their global economic categorization,” said the CS.

Source: Media Max

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of TradeMark Africa.