The Effect Of East Africa Community Trade Block On Economic Growth In Kenya
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Date
2019Author
Wanjugu, Thuita Beatrice
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
During the 1990s, there was a global wave of Regional Integration Arrangements. They
formed the most noticeable developments in the international trading system and were claimed to
be the drive towards the promotion of trade and economic growth. In Africa, the need to increase
regional cooperation by creating unified economic blocs became the motivational factor to form
regional integration arrangements.
In East Africa, the narrative was not different as the leaders envisioned a united region with
unrestricted movement of goods, services and people to create larger markets that will enhance
trade and investment and lower unemployment and poverty. The current East African Community
was revived in July 2000 and transformed to a Customs Union in 2005.
The objective of the study was to determine the effect of the East Africa Trade Block on
Kenya’s economic growth. The time series data used for analysis was the years 2004-2017.
Customs Union, volume of exports and imports and Gross Domestic Product were the variables
used in the study. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze information from public documents to
derive conclusions from the discoveries.
The study revealed that the formation of the Custom Union had a positive effect on trade
and economic growth in Kenya despite several bottlenecks that the study has provided
recommendations for. The findings also illustrate an increase in Kenya’s intra-EAC trade. We can
therefore conclude by saying that Regional integration is beneficial to a country’s trade and
economic growth what is needed is political commitment from member states.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- School of Business [1311]
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