NAIROBI, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- The East African Community (EAC) will hold its 11th summit on Friday, at which heads of member states are expected to sign a protocol establishing the EAC Common Market.
The EAC consists of five member states: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda. It covers a population of over 120 million and a combined GDP of some 60 billion U.S. dollars, with a development strategy of growing up from a Customs Union, a Common Market to a Monetary Union and eventually a Political Federation.
It has already had a functional Customs Union which was established in January 2005.
Negotiations on the proposed Common Market began 18 months ago and was expected to be concluded by December 2008. But thorny issues had prolonged the negotiation process which pit Tanzania against four other member states.
The negotiations had been bogged down in three areas, namely national identification document, access and use of land and permanent residence.
Heads of EAC member states concluded the draft EAC Common Market Protocol in Kampala, Uganda in September this year.
Under the Common Market, a series of measures will be taken to integrate the regional market, including achieving a full-fledged Customs Union, eliminating tariff barriers, non-tariff trade barriers and technical trade barriers, allowing the free flow of goods, services, capital and persons, adopting Common External Tariff, introducing harmonized product standards, as well as harmonizing finance, trade, monetary, education, employment and labor policies.
Upon implementation, citizens of the five nations will be free to have cross-border travel without visas.
