At the occasion of the Committee on Customs of the East African Community (EAC) that took place from 25 to 27 April 2017 in Dar Es Salaam, the WCO-EAC CREATe project team reported the number of regional Authorized Economic Operators (AEO) had increased from 13 to 46. These 46 companies accounted for a record-breaking 930 000 000 USD in trade volume in March 2017, which represented over 5% of the regional trade in the EAC region according to the statistics provided by EAC Partner States (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda).
The EAC Committee on Customs encouraged the project team to continue building on the momentum gained in the first quarter of 2017 and advised that the EAC region had decided that all negotiations and signatures of Mutual Recognition Agreements with external trading partners/blocks (outside the EAC) will be undertaken as a region rather than as individual EAC Partner States.
The Chairperson of the EAC Committee on Customs, Mr. Kateshumbwa (Commissioner-Customs Uganda), welcomed the fact that through the execution of the WCO-EAC CREATe project, the WCO is supporting the region’s efforts to implement Article 7 of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade Facilitation.
The EAC Committee on Customs comprises of Commissioners Customs and EAC Secretariat representatives.
The WCO-EAC CREATe project is funded by the Government of Sweden.
For further information, please contact Mr. Richard Chopra (Richard.Chopra@wcoomd.org).