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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/272

TRADE POLICY REVIEW:

Economic progress, but continuation of reform is still needed

The East African Community (EAC) members (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) have continued their economic reform programmes over the last few years aimed at addressing key challenges, notably poverty reduction, sustainable economic growth and development, and full integration into the world economy, according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of the East African Community.

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The report notes that further liberalization of trade and investment, driven both by their commitments in the WTO, and by their participation in regional trade agreements, have been major features in this process. But the report also adds that EAC countries' membership in overlapping trade arrangements makes their trade regime complex, difficult to manage, and is likely to limit the proper functioning of the EAC as a customs union.

According to the report, more attention needs to be paid to non-tariff measures in the full establishment of the EAC customs union (its free-trade-area and common trade-measure components). In addition, continued structural reforms and additional trade liberalization by EAC members would contribute to better resource allocation.

The report also calls for an improvement of EAC members' multilateral commitments, both on goods and services. Such efforts will improve their ability to attract investment and improve their business climate.

The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government, will be the basis for the Trade Policy Review (TPR) by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO.

The following documents are available in MS Word format.

• Secretariat report
  > Contents and summary observations (38 pages, 516KB)
  > Annex 1: Kenya (98 pages, 2182KB)
  > Annex 2: Tanzania (82 pages, 1338KB)
  > Annex 3: Uganda (27 pages, 1326KB)
    
• Government report (47 pages, 473KB)
    

Note  back to top

Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member countries’ trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant developments that may have an impact on the global trading system are also monitored. For each review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the government of the member under review, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents are then discussed by the WTO’s full membership in the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). These documents and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are published shortly afterwards.

Print copies of previous TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Genève 21 and through the on-line bookshop.

The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States.

Schedule of forthcoming reviews  back to top

Colombia : 22 and 24 November 2006
Hong Kong , China : 13 and 15 December 2006

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