A New Pathway for Intra-regional Trade Facilitation in the East African Community: The Impact of Belt and Road Initiative in Sino-Kenyan Economic Relations

Abstract

The East African Community (hereafter EAC) has been highly regarded as the most vibrant sub-regional organization in the African continent. The community has made enviable achievements in the socioeconomic and political-security realms, making the region one of the most integrated in the world. The EACs efforts can be seen from the customs union, common market, the monetary union, as well as implementation of joint projects especially in the transportation network development. Similar to EAC, Chinas ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (hereafter BRI) also emphasizes infrastructure development and attempts to spur progressive trade liberalization at a global level. As East Africa is one of the main stops of BRI in the African continent, China has recognized that strengthening cooperation is the fundamental solution to the challenges that BRI might face in the region and has suggested policy consultation, trade facilitation, infrastructure development, financial cooperation, and people to people exchange with the EAC member states.

The purpose of the thesis is to explore the following issues: the lack of product diversification and value addition

the uneven implementation of institutional frameworks

the transportation network deficiency

the lack of agency due to exogenous actors/factors in the EAC. The paper argues that the aforementioned challenges hamper intra-regional trade in the EAC and attempts to provide the EACs efforts or lack thereof to overcome them. The research question that the thesis attempts to answer is Can BRI be a strong external thrust to reinforce the EACs collective aspiration for intra-regional trade? To answer the question, the author observes whether there was a change in the collective preference of intra- regional trade facilitation over time and in conjunction with its engagement with China. The latter part of the thesis focuses on whether BRI can synchronize with EAC in vision, finance, technology, and politics. With the case study of Kenya and its Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway project, the author ascertains that although the EAC cannot expect a cure-all panacea for its issues concerning intra- trade facilitation, BRI can still be a strong external thrust to help update transportation network to improve regional connections and thus improve intra- regional trade.

While this qualitative paper is inevitably only a first step towards a better understanding of agency of the EAC countries involved in BRI, it explores the role of the EAC in actively shaping the economic dynamics in its engagement with China. The significance of the thesis lies in the fact that it establishes new insights into the under-researched topic of intra-regional trade facilitation of the EAC, and the convergence of it with BRI.

Key words: The East African Community (EAC), Intra-regional trade facilitation, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Sino-Kenyan trade