ARUSHA, Tanzania, May 20 (Xinhua) -- East African Community (EAC) leaders on Saturday are meeting in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, to consider issues including the pending EU-EAC economic partnership agreements (EPAs), according to a program released on Friday.
Last November, Tanzania refused to endorse a regional trade pact with the European Union, saying the deal stood in its way to industrialization.
This stand, however, threatens to split the bloc as Kenya and Rwanda that have already signed the deal see other partner states as reading from different scrip.
Early this year, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni met his Tanzanian counterpart John Magufuli over the possibility of ratifying the EPAs.
These are trade agreements that the European Union is negotiating with blocs in Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP)-majorly former colonies. Once signed, the EPAs would lead to up to 82 percent opening of the East African markets to European goods tariff-free in a span of 25 years.
The EU argues this would be reciprocal as it would also take in EAC products tariff-free. The deal would also compel the partner states not to impose export taxes on key raw materials, a move seen by analysts as likely to stall the region's quest to industrialize.
