| dc.description.abstract | East African Community (EAC) is an economic integration involving Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda,
Tanzania and Uganda. One of the objectives of EAC integration was to develop policies and
programmes aimed at widening and deepening trade among the Partner States. Significant
progress has been made in the EAC economic integration process. For example, the East African
Community Customs Union was established in 2005 that abolished intra-community tariffs and
adopted a Common External Tariff (CET); in addition, the East African Community Common
Market (EACCM) was established in 2010 aimed at free movements of goods in the EAC,
among others. However, Partner States have not yet realized the full trade and welfare benefits of
a customs union and common market because of the presence of technical barriers to trade
(TBT), in addition to other trade barriers. Trade between the Partner States is still being hindered
by the existence of non-tariff barriers, which is of concern to the private sector in the EAC. The
EAC has experienced a general increase in the intra-EAC trade over the years. The Intra-EAC
trade total increased by about 8% to US$ 4.5 billion in 2010 compared to US$ 4.2 billion in
2009. The study revealed that the level of intra-EAC trade was still very low.
Several scholars have put the impact of international harmonization of standards on international
trade to the test their main concession is that international harmonization of standards has a
positive effect on international trade. The WTO through the TBT Agreement advocate
international harmonization of standard it however recognizes and respects states right to make
regulations and standards applicable in the States territory. Though harmonization of standards is
desired states have to consider other factors such as the protection of consumers and plant and
animal health. By states exercising this right to make regulations in their territory certain
regulations differ thereby inhibiting harmonization and creating technical barriers to trade.
Acknowledging the role SQMT plays in facilitating trade the EAC adopted the EAC SQMT Act
2006 which aims to harmonize standards and technical regulations in the region. So far the EAC
has managed to harmonize 1240 standards this is however very low compared to the fact that
partner state maintain as many as 6000 national standards. Despite the strides made in
harmonization the provisions of the SQMT Act are not fully implemented. Much still needs to be
done to establish trust in inspection, testing and certification conducted by the other EAC
countries to establish mutual recognition. The challenges identified in implementation include:
reluctance by states to adopt of EAC standards and lack of financial and technical resources. The
study explores the challenges and identifies the unnecessary trade barriers faced by exporters in
the EAC intra-regional trade due to differences in technical regulations and standards amongst
EAC Partner States. The study also identifies opportunities and avenues that can be adopted by
partner states to fast track harmonization i.e. judicial intervention and approximation of
respective national standards laws to the SQMT Act.
This study has generated data that can assist to inform the private sector and other stakeholders
to propose position(s) suggesting best actions to fast-track the harmonization of standards and
the development of technical regulations framework with a view of promoting free movement of
goods in the EAC. The study was constrained by number of factors including: lack of EAC up to
date trade data and scanty information on informal trade. Therefore, the trade statistics given
does not include informal trade. The paper is biased towards the original EAC countries; Kenya,
Uganda and Tanzania for which data are readily available. | en |
