UN body warns region against signing trade deal with EU
A rose flower farm in Kenya. The EU accounts for 31 per cent of Kenya’s export market, especially for cut flowers, tea, fresh vegetables and coffee. The EPA deal is expected to ensure continued duty-free and quota-free access to the EU for all EAC exports.
A United Nations think-tank has warned the East African Community against entering into an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union arguing that it will neither spur economic growth nor bring wealth to the region’s citizens.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) says in a report that if the EPA is signed, local industries will struggle to withstand competitive pressures from EU firms, while the region will be stuck in its position as a low value-added commodity exporter. “If the EAC-EU EPA is fully implemented, the region risks losing trading opportunities with other partners, industrial output, welfare and GDP,” the 45-page report seen by The EastAfrican says.
The report titled Analysis of the Impact of the EAC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement on the EAC Economies is yet to be made public and is expected to be discussed by the Council of Ministers in the “days to come,” according to sources at the EAC Secretariat. The report, commissioned by the EAC Secretariat, is likely to further polarise the position of the Community’s members on the EPA, which Kenya and Rwanda have already signed.
