A joint paper from the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least-developed Countries and Small Islands Developing States (UNOHRLLS) and the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) outlines the opportunities offered by digital trade to reduce barriers to international trade for Less Developed Countries (LDCs), so to overcome the obstacles that SMEs and startups in such countries typically face.

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While customs duties on EAC-originating goods have been completely eliminated in intra-EAC trade, unharmonised excise duties levied on the movement of goods and services across the region continue to restrict trade, creating an unlevel playing field between traders and preventing the EAC Partner States from reaching a deeper level of integration. A recent study made by KPMG for the East African Business Council (EABC) takes stock of the discriminative taxes that currently exist in the EAC Partner States, assessing their impact on intra-EAC trade and investment, and trying to draw lessons from the experience of the European Union in harmonizing such a type of taxes.

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