![]() The criteria for admission into the bloc is provided under Article 3 of the East African Community treaty signed in 1999. There has been mixed progress in the implementation of agreed action on this front. That’s in 2023, a deadline that’s unlikely to be met. The protocol set a timeline of 10 years within which the partner states need to have a common currency. This began with the adoption and signing of the East African Monetary Union Protocol on 30 November 2013. The bloc is now preparing the ground for its third pillar, the monetary union. Some of the governments in the region, notably Rwanda and Kenya, have also waived the work permit fee for citizens from the region. It’s implementation has seen the east African governments harmonise immigration procedures and order border posts to operate for 24 hours. In the long run, an operational customs union should open up the regional economy so that small economies are able to gain access to industries that would otherwise be out of their reach.įor its part, the purpose of a common market is to ease cross-border movement of goods, persons and workers. East Africa is also applying a common external tariff on imports from outside the region. Under the customs union protocol taxes on goods produced within the region have been eliminated. These have helped improve trade and investments in the region since 2006 and boosted country relations. So far, the bloc has been implementing protocols on a customs union and a common market. These are the customs union, the common market, the monetary union, and the political federation. This is according to the African Regional Integration Index which ranks blocs on five aspects of integration - trade, productive, macroeconomic, infrastructural and movement of people.Ĭurrently, it has six members: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.Įast Africa’s integration is envisioned under four pillars. What’s the state of East African Community integration?Įast African Community is one of the most vibrant and best performing blocs in Africa. Regional integration expert Jonathan Ang'ani Omuchesi discusses key points of the decision. Recently, the East African Community ministers recommended the DRC’s admission, a decision set to be formalised by the bloc’s presidents when they meet on 29 March. Shortly after his controversial electoral victory in early 2019, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Felix Tshisekedi sought to get his country admitted into the East African Community.
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