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East African Community

Headquarters	Arusha
Membership	3 member states 2 acceding candidate states
Official Website	http://www.eac.int/

The East African Community (EAC) is a customs union in East Africa, consisting of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania; Burundi and Rwanda will join on 1 July 2007^[1]. It was originally founded in 1967, but was disbanded in 1977. On 30 November 1999, the EAC Free Trade Agreement was signed in the Tanzanian city of Arusha. In January 2001 at a ceremony held in Arusha, which is also its headquarters, the EAC was revived.

The new EAC treaty paved the way for an economic and, ultimately, political union of the three countries. A further treaty signed in March 2004 set up a customs union, which commenced on 1 January 2005. Under the terms of the treaty, Kenya, the richest of the three countries, will pay duty on its goods entering Uganda and Tanzania until 2010 based on a declining scale. A common system of tariffs will apply to other countries supplying the three countries with goods.

EAC is one of the pillars of the African Economic Community.

Contents 1 Members 2 History 3 Future plans 3.1 Single Tourist Visa 4 East African Court of Justice 5 East African Legislative Assembly 6 East African Passport 7 Comparison with other Regional blocs 8 References 9 See also 10 External links

•  Kenya (2001)
•  Uganda (2001)
•  Tanzania (2001)
•  Burundi (acceding; due to join July 2007)
•  Rwanda (acceding; due to join July 2007)

The East African region covers an area of 1.8 million square kilometres with a combined population of about 100 million (July 2005 est.) and has vast natural resources. The three countries are relatively prosperous compared to their war-torn neighbours such as Congo and southern Sudan. Most of them also share a common language, Swahili.

Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have had a history of co-operation dating back to the early 20th century, incuding the Customs Union between Kenya and Uganda in 1917, which the then Tanganyika joined in 1927, the East African High Commission (1948-1961), the East African Common Services Organisation (1961-1967) and the East African Community (1967-1977).^[2]

In 1977, the East African Community collapsed after ten years, amid disagreements caused by dictatorship under Idi Amin in Uganda, socialism in Tanzania, and capitalism in Kenya,^[3] and the three member states lost over sixty years of co-operation and the benefits of economies of scale. Each of the former member states had to embark, at great expense and at lower efficiency, upon the establishment of services and industries that had previously been provided at the Community level.

The EAC made such political and economic sense that it was inevitable that its revival would be touted once the political climate in the region stabilised. It was no surprise, therefore, when Presidents Moi of Kenya, Mwinyi of Tanzania, and Museveni of Uganda signed the Treaty for East African Co-operation in Arusha, Tanzania, on November 30, 1993, and established a Tri-partite Commission for Co-operation. A process of re-integration was embarked on involving tripartite programmes of co-operation in political, economic, social and cultural fields, research and technology, defence, security, legal and judicial affairs.

The East African Community was finally revived on 30 November 1999, when the Treaty for its re-establishment was signed. It came into force on 7 July 2000, twenty-three years after the total collapse of the defunct erstwhile Community and its organs.

The reinvigorated East African Community (EAC) articulates itself as based on the principles of good governance deemed to include adherence to democratic principles, the rule of law, accountability, transparency, social justice, equal opportunities, gender equality and most pertinently in this context, “recognition, promotion and protection of human and peoples’ rights in accordance with the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR).

The new treaty may be fasttracked, with plans drawn up in 2004 to introduce a monetary union with a common currency, the East African shilling, by 2009. There are also plans for a common market and a political union with a common President (initially on a rotation basis) and a common parliament by 2010. However, some experts like those based out of the public think tank Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA), have noted that the plans are too ambitious to be met by 2010 because a number of political, social and economic challenges are yet to be addressed. The fast tracking is currently the subject of National Consultative discussions, and a final decision will be taken by the EAC Heads of State in mid-2007. ^[4]

It had been hoped that an East African Single Tourist Visa may have been ready for November 2006, if it was approved by the relevant sectoral authorities under the EAC's integration programme. If approved the visa will be valid for all three current member states of the EAC (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda). Under the proposal for the visa, any new East African single visa can be issued by any member state's embassy. The visa proposal followed an appeal by the tourist boards of the partner states for a common visa to accelerate promotion of the region as a single tourist destination and the EAC Secretariat wanted it approved before November's World Travel Fair (or World Travel Market) in London^[5]. When approved by the East African council of ministers, tourists could apply for one country's entry visa which would then be applicable in all regional member states as a single entry requirement initiative^[6].

The East African Court of Justice is the judicial arm of the Community. The court has original jurisdiction over the interpretation and application of the 1999 Treaty that re-established the EAC and in the future may have other original, appellate, human rights or other jurisdiction upon conclusion of a protocol to realise such extended jurisdiction. It is temporarily based in Arusha, Tanzania.

The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) is the legislative arm of the Community. The EALA has 27 members who are all elected by the National Assemblies of the member states of the Community. The EALA has oversight functions on all matters that fall within the Community’s work and its functions include debating and approving the budget of the Community, discussing all matters pertaining to the Community and making recommendations to the Council as it may deem necessary for the implementation of the Treaty, liasing with National Assemblies on matters petaining to the Community and establishing committees for such purposes as it deems necessary. Since being inaugurated in 2001, the EALA has had several sittings as a plenum in Arusha, Kampala and Nairobi.

The East African passport was officially launched on 1 April 1999.^[7] The East African passport has been introduced as a travel document to ease border crossing for East Africans.^{[8] [9]} It is valid for travel within the EAC countries only and will entitle the holder to a multi entry stay of renewable six months’ validity in any of the countries.^[8] The passport is issued in all three EAC member states (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania). The passports are available at the Headquarters of the respective Immigration Departments in Nairobi, Kampala and Dar es Salaam. Only East African nationals may apply to be issued with the passports.^{[8] [9]} The passport costs US$10 or the equivalent in EAC currencies.^[9] Processing of applications for the passports will normally take two to three weeks. Although the passport is only valid within the EAC, modalities of internationalizing the East African passport were being discussed with the aim towards having a common travel document for East Africans by 2006.^[8]

Other measures meant to ease border crossing for East Africans include: the issuance of inter-state passes (which commenced on 1st July 2003); a single immigration Departure/Entry card (adopted by the all 3 member states); the finalization of harmonized procedures of work permits and the classification process; and the compilation of studies on the Harmonization of Labour Laws and Employment Policies (now in its final stages).^[8]

African Economic Community Pillars regional blocs (REC) Area (km²) Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Member states in millions per capita AEC 29,910,442 853,520,010 2,053,706 2,406 53 ECOWAS 5,112,903 251,646,263 342,519 1,361 15 ECCAS 6,667,421 121,245,958 175,928 1,451 11 SADC 9,882,959 233,944,179 737,335 3,152 14 EAC 1,763,777 97,865,428 104,239 1,065 3 COMESA 12,873,957 406,102,471 735,599 1,811 20 IGAD 5,233,604 187,969,775 225,049 1,197 7 Western Sahara 3 266,000 273,008  ?  ? N/A 4 Other African blocs Area (km²) Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Member states in millions per capita CEMAC 1 3,020,142 34,970,529 85,136 2,435 6 SACU 1 2,693,418 51,055,878 541,433 10,605 5 UEMOA 1 3,505,375 80,865,222 101,640 1,257 8 UMA 2 5,782,140 84,185,073 491,276 5,836 5 Agadir 1,703,910 126,066,286 513,674 4,075 4 1 Economic bloc inside a pillar REC 2 Proposed for pillar REC, but objecting participation 3 The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) is a signatory to the AEC, but not participating in any bloc yet 4 Majority under military occupation by Morocco; some territory administered by the SADR      smallest value among the blocs compared      largest value among the blocs compared During 2004. Source: CIA World Factbook 2005, IMF WEO Database This box: view • talk • edit

Most active regional blocs Regional bloc 1 Area (km²) Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Member states 1 in millions per capita EU 4,325,675 496,198,605 12,025,415 24,235 27 SAARC 5,136,740 1,467,255,669 4,074,031 2,777 8 CSN 17,339,153 370,158,470 2,868,430 7,749 10 ASEAN 4,400,000 553,900,000 2,172,000 4,044 10 NAFTA 21,588,638 430,495,039 15,279,000 35,491 3 EurAsEC 20,789,100 208,067,618 1,689,137 8,118 6 ECOWAS 5,112,903 251,646,263 342,519 1,361 15 SACU 2,693,418 51,055,878 541,433 10,605 5 GCC 2,285,844 35,869,438 536,223 14,949 6 COMESA 3,779,427 118,950,321 141,962 1,193 5 Agadir 1,703,910 126,066,286 513,674 4,075 4 CEMAC 3,020,142 34,970,529 85,136 2,435 6 CARICOM 462,344 14,565,083 64,219 4,409 14+1 3 EAC 1,763,777 97,865,428 104,239 1,065 3 CACM 422,614 37,816,598 159,536 4,219 5 PARTA 528,151 7,810,905 23,074 2,954 12+2 3 EFTA 529,600 12,233,467 471,547 38,546 4 Reference blocs and countries 2 Area (km²) Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Political divisions in millions per capita UN 133,178,011 6,411,682,270 55,167,630 8,604 192 Germany 357,050 82,438,000 2,585,000 31,400 16 Japan 377,873 128,085,000 4,220,000 33,100 47 Canada 9,984,670 32,507,874 1,165,000 35,200 13 Indonesia 1,904,569 234,300,000 935,000 4,000 33 Brazil 8,514,877 187,560,000 1,616,000 8,600 27 Russia 17,075,200 143,782,338 1,723,000 12,100 89 India 3,287,590 1,102,600,000 4,042,000 3,700 35 China (PRC) 4 9,596,960 1,306,847,624 10,000,000 7,600 33 USA 9,631,418 300,000,000 12,980,000 43,500 50 1 Including data only for full and most active members 2 The first five states in the World by area, population and GDP (PPP) 3 Including non-sovereign autonomous entities of other states 4 Data for the People's Republic of China does not include Hong Kong, Macau and regions administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan).      smallest value among the blocs compared      largest value among the blocs compared During 2004. Source: CIA World Factbook 2005, IMF WEO Database This box: view • talk • edit

1. ^ Joint Communiqué of the 8th Summmit of EAC Heads of State, 30th November 2006 AICC, Arusha, Tanzania
2. ^ From Co-operation to Community (eac.int)
3. ^ East African trade zone off to creaky start, Christian Science Monitor, March 09, 2006
4. ^ *Sunday Nation(Business Sunday) - Jan 7th, 2007
5. ^ Single East African visa for tourists coming in November
6. ^ East Africa geared for single tourist entry visa program
7. ^ East African Community (EAC)
8. ^ ^{a b c d e} EAC News...
9. ^ ^{a b c} Travelling in East Africa

• Economy of Africa
• List of Trade blocs
• Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)
• Southern African Development Community (SADC)
• Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
• Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS)

• East African Community
• EAC Free Trade Agreement
• Africa Pages
• Information from africadatabase.org
• BBC News report on the setting of the Customs Union
• East African Monetary Union
• East African Legislative Assembly
• It's Official - Rwanda, Burundi Join East Africa Next Month, allAfrica.com, October 17, 2006