The East African Community's secretariat has asked member states to provide last year's tax and trade input data to enable the bloc decide whether it will sign a trade deal with the European Union. The letter was addressed to Principal (or Permanent) Secretaries in charge of EAC affairs in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. The trade deal stalled last year after Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi failed to sign. A comprehensive report on the impact of the EAC-EU EPA on EAC industrialization and the impact on the EAC tax revenue is however yet to be compiled. “This is because the consultant is still considering the impact on industry while the impact on tax revenues still requires partner states to provide tax data for the previous ten years (2006-2016) to facilitate this analysis,” Eriyo said.

Source: The Star January 25, 2017 01:05 UTC