More than two years after the United Kingdom left the 23-member European Union in January 2020, the East African Community has gained a new member, the Democratic Republic of Congo, making it the 7th member state of the regional bloc, joining Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. The exit of the United Kingdom from the trading bloc caused a lot of hullabaloo with many speculating instability in the EU. Britain had been a member since 1973, when the EU was still the European Community.
Under the arrangement member states of the EU benefitted from an internal single market of an estimated total population of about 447 million, under an established regime of standardised laws governing matters, where the states have agreed to act as one. The bloc’s policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market. Yet the UK was more than willing to quit the bloc. According to Wikipedia, polls were conducted which indicated that most people who voted in favour of the UK exiting did so on grounds that the country needed to regain control of its affairs. Polls found that the main reasons people voted Leave were “the principle that decisions about the UK should be taken in the UK”, and that leaving “offered the best chance for the UK to regain control over immigration and its own borders” Wikipedia reports.
In East Africa, the push for the regional bloc has been on and growing even much stronger over the last many years, dating back to a long history of cooperation between Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda under successive regional integration arrangements. Kenya and Uganda started in 1917 with the Customs Union and were joined by Tanganyika in 1927. It later in 1948 became the East African High Commission, which ran until 1961. This was then succeeded by the East African Common Services Organisation between 1961-1967; the East African Community in 1967 until 1977 and the East African Co-operation between 1993 to 2000.
Following the dissolution of the former East African Community in 1977, the Member States negotiated a Mediation Agreement re Assets and Liabilities, which they signed in 1984.
However, as one of the provisions of the Mediation Agreement, the three Member States (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) agreed to explore areas of future co-operation and to make concrete arrangements for such co-operation.
Subsequent meetings of the three Heads of State led to the signing of the Agreement for the Establishment of the Permanent Tripartite Commission for East African Co-operation on 30 November 1993.
Full East African Co-operation operations started on 14 March 1996 when the Secretariat of the Permanent Tripartite Commission was launched at the Headquarters of the EAC in Arusha, Tanzania.
Considering the need to consolidate regional co-operation, the East African Heads of State, at their 2nd Summit in Arusha on 29 April 1997, directed the Permanent Tripartite Commission to start the process of upgrading the Agreement establishing the Permanent Tripartite Commission for East African Co-operation into a Treaty.
The Treaty-making process, which involved negotiations among the Member States as well as wide participation of the public, was successfully concluded within 3 years.
The Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community was signed in Arusha on 30 November 1999.
The Treaty entered into force on 7 July 2000 following the conclusion of the process of its ratification and deposit of the Instruments of Ratification with the Secretary-General by all the three Partner States.
Upon the entry into force of the Treaty, the East African Community came into being.
The addition of the DR Congo into the community is seen as a milestone considering the size of its population and subsequently the amount of trade that will be involved. During the signing of the accession treaty on April 8, 2022, the chair of the Summit of EAC Heads of State, also President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta stated that the region has already began realising the promise of the EAC including the free movement of people, goods and services across the Community that has boosted trade and strengthened people-to-people ties thereby enabling East Africans to harness the comparative strength of each member state for the benefit of all and to confront and solve problems together.
“The accession of DRC as a member state of EAC will even more elevate these gains and strengthen our economic muscles and competitiveness in the continent and globally,” he stated at State House Nairobi last week, adding: “We welcome DRC to the Customs Union and Common Market which are the signature pillars of our Community and the foundation upon which our social, political, trade, investment and economic interests stand.”
President Kenyatta said that the signing of the Treaty of Accession would be followed by the immediate removal of non-tariff barriers on the movement of capital, goods, services and people, which will in time lead to an increase in intra-EAC trade, even as he emphasised the role of the private sector in regional integration.
“Our Community is people-centred and private sector-driven. Member States of EAC remain committed to advancing and promoting the private sector’s interests as provided for under Article 127 of our Treaty. Furthermore, Partner States have committed to stimulating market development through infrastructural linkages, promoting conducive investment codes, protecting property rights and other rights, and the proper regulation of our private sector,” he said.
For his part, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni stated that he had long awaited the entry of the DRC into the bloc. “I have personally been waiting for the last 60 years for the Democratic Republic of Congo to return where it belongs (EAC). We now have a bigger market; more investment opportunities for our citizens and we are stronger as we go to negotiate with other blocs,”
He points out that with a common language, the EAC has an advantage the other blocs such as the EU lacked. The East African Community is only sensible if it brings about the prosperity of our people through Market Integration and Strategic Security. Above all, we have what Europe doesn’t have- Common language.
