H.E Ambassador Kristian Schmidt, the EU Head of Delegation to Uganda is happy to announce that the EAC Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the East African Community has been concluded and was initialled by all EAC Partner States in Brussels this week. The EAC-EPA still needs to be signed by Ministers and ratified by the different countries. The EAC-EU EPA is a politically significant Agreement because the EAC is considered by the African Union as the trailblazer of many aspirations in Africa: they are a customs union, a single market now aspiring to have a single currency. The agreement covers goods and development-cooperation and includes rendezvous clauses for services and rules chapters. Overall the EU will open 100% and the EAC shall liberalise 82.6% of its volume of trade with the EU - 80% of this volume is liberalised by year 15 and the remaining 2.6% by year 25. This agreement has advantageous rules of origin and cumulation, with asymmetry in favour of the EAC.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 09:50:34 +0000