The European Union opens its €4300 billion market to East Africa

The European Union (EU) market, worth €4300 billion, has welcomed more than 500 East African agribusinesses.This new directive benefits Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania. These countries would be able to trade agricultural products with the EU under the EU-EAC Market Access Upgrade Programme (MARKUP), which was launched five years ago, in 2018. At the virtual launch of MARKUP, Jose-Luiz Gonzalez, the programme officer of the EU delegation in Tanzania and the EAC, stated that the EU is excited to further its economic connection with these East African governments through this project. He noted that the long-time relationship between the EU and EAC has been very eventful and beneficial to both parties with its fair share of lessons and successes. He expressed that the relationship is an ever-evolving one, as they continue to adjust based on what works and what doesn’t, what needs to be tweaked, and what needs to remain the same to meet the requirements of today’s trading ecosystem. "Decades of trade and development cooperation have taught us that the link between increased exports and development is not automatic," Jose-Luiz stated. We encouraged the creation and use of trade information portals as a tool for streamlining export procedures and lowering associated costs. "Coffee and horticulture associations were trained to use the trade portal to assess the value of each step required to export their products," he added.