The East African Community (EAC) has launched a revamped single tariff platform to streamline regional trade and enable real-time sharing of customs and trade data among member states. The platform unveiled on Tuesday in Arusha on the sidelines of the ongoing African Heads of State Energy Summit aims to boost efficiency, cut cargo clearance times, and address challenges such as non-tariff barriers.
Cargo systems clearance long processes have in the past hampered trade between member states of the EAC. This has seen many goods taking more time at the ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salam in Kenya and Tanzania which most of the EAC member states rely on to transport their goods through.
A file image of impounded ethanol containers at the Kenya Ports Authority FILE Kenya's main seaport, the Port of Mombasa, handled 29.92 million tonnes of cargo throughput in the first nine months of 2024, compared to 26.68 million tonnes during the same period in 2023.
According to a report released by the Kenya Ports Authority(KPA) in 2024, Uganda contributed to a significant portion of the traffic.
