Trade barriers challenge East African Community protocol
Efforts to fully implement the East African Community Common Market Protocol continue to face major setbacks, with trade barriers still hindering the free movement of goods, services, and labor across member states. At the same time, TradeMark Africa, formerly TradeMark East Africa, is investing millions of dollars in programs aimed at helping women and youth tap into regional markets. We spoke to a Ugandan trade expert who was part of the original negotiating team for the protocol to unpack the bottlenecks and what it will take to unlock the region’s full economic potential. Malcolm Musiime reports.
