East African Community partner states

According to the Lomé IV Convention (1990-2000), sub-Saharan African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries benefitted from a preferential tariff system for their trade with the Member States of the European Communities and later the European Union. However, this system was in breach of the ‘most-favoured-nation’ principle under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), according to which preferential treatment granted to ACP countries should also be granted to other countries with a similar level of development. This is the reason why the Cotonou Agreement, signed in 2000, now included a provision allowing the EU to negotiate different economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with ACP sub-groups (Chapter 2, Part 3, Title II). This provision says that the aim of EPAs is to liberalise most trade in goods and services – with the exception of sensitive sectors and products – in conformity with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules (Article XXIV, GATT). This means that partner countries have to open their markets to EU products. However, this reciprocity is accompanied by asymmetry: while EPAs require the EU to immediately open its markets for most products, they provide for a gradual opening of ACP markets.
The East African Community (EAC) is one of the groupings having negotiated an EPA with the EU. All EAC member states at the time – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda – were part of the negotiations, which concluded in October 2014. South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which are EAC member states since 2016 and 2022, respectively, were not involved in the negotiations but can join the EPA once it enters into force. EAC members have long failed to adopt a common position on the EPA, thereby delaying plans for signing and ratifying it, and therefore it is yet to enter into force.