6.11 Facilitating trade in the EAC
This report outlines improvements to facilitate trade measures among East African Community (EAC) countries – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda – and the resulting potential benefits. Trade facilitation includes customs policies and procedures, and the transport of goods before or after they clear borders.
The report identifies that required trade documents and inspections remain numerous and unpredictable, but targeted for harmonisation. Progress is being made towards targeting only riskier cargoes for physical inspection and towards adopting electronic customs data interchange systems and harmonised customs information sharing.
The Northern Corridor and the Central Corridor are the EAC's main transport routes; facilitating trade movement along these corridors is essential to increasing the volume and profitability of EAC countries' trade. Infrastructure improvements are underway, but are not keeping pace with rising traffic and trade flows. Administrative problems raise shippers' costs, rail is unreliable and air is a small, but growing, sector.
Progress by country is detailed.
Issuing body: United States International Trade Commission
Type: Report
Status: Final
Title: Trade facilitation in the East African Community: recent developments and potential benefits
File type: PDF
File size: 4.72 MB
Year of publication: 2012
Number of pages: 103
