Uganda has traditionally been Kenya’s top trading partner in East Africa, but latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) ranked the country third, with Tanzania coming second as a result of the ongoing elimination of non-tariff barriers and increasing local production in Uganda of goods that were previously imported.
The report showed that the US imported goods from Kenya worth Ksh3.7 billion ($41.8 million) in June, followed by Tanzania at Ksh2.8 billion ($31.6 million) and Uganda at Ksh2.5 billion ($28.3 million).
“The EAC integration means that Tanzania has to apply tariffs to products from the Southern Africa Development Community, while Kenyan goods are basically entering a domestic market,” said Sam Watasa, lead advisor on non-tariff barriers at Uganda’s Ministry of Trade.
Although it is difficult to project future trends based on a month’s data, Kenyan exports to Uganda have declined by almost half since November last year, at Ksh4.5 billion ($51 million), a trend analysts attributed to the growth of the manufacturing sector in Uganda. [more at The East African]
