Tanzania Carries 39% of East Africa’s Unresolved Trade Barriers as Deadline Lapses
TANZANIA · TRADE
Key Facts
—The scorecard: the East African Community’s Regional Monitoring Committee counts 28 outstanding non-tariff barriers in the bloc’s time-bound elimination programme. Tanzania is responsible for 11 of them, or 39.3 percent.
—The rest of the table: Kenya imposes five barriers (17.85 percent), the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda four each, South Sudan two, and Burundi and Uganda one each.
—The missed deadline: heads of state at the March 7, 2026 summit in Arusha ordered every outstanding barrier scrapped by June 30, 2026. The deadline has lapsed with little progress.
—The barriers in practice: a Tanzanian industrial development levy on Kenyan tractors, a 35 percent duty on Kenyan-made Zesta jam, and a US$100 fee on Rwandan nationals who enter Tanzania more than three times in a month.
—The cost: Kenya’s exports to Tanzania fell to Sh2.6 billion (about US$20 million) in February, the lowest since May 2021, and trade inside the bloc is stuck at around 15 percent of its total trade.
Tanzania accounts for nearly two in five of the unresolved trade barriers inside the East African Community, the bloc’s own watchdog reports, even after presidents ordered all of them scrapped by the end of June. The quiet protectionism is squeezing Kenyan and Ugandan exporters and testing the credibility of the region’s common market. All dollar conversions in this story use Monday’s rate of roughly 129 Kenyan shillings to the dollar.
The scorecard
Non-tariff barriers, or NTBs, are obstacles to trade that are not customs duties: surprise levies, special fees, extra inspections, permit delays and roadblocks. The East African Community (EAC), the eight-nation bloc stretching from Burundi to Somalia, keeps a running list of them in a time-bound elimination programme.
The bloc’s 40th Regional Monitoring Committee, the body tasked with identifying and resolving NTBs, met in Kampala from May 4 to 9 and found 28 barriers still outstanding, The EastAfrican reported on Monday. Tanzania carries 11 of them, Kenya five, DR Congo and Rwanda four each, South Sudan two, and Burundi and Uganda one each.
Tax-style measures such as excise duties and special levies dominate the list and have proved the most persistent. The barriers blamed on DR Congo and Rwanda are mostly administrative and procedural.
What the barriers look like in practice
According to the committee, Tanzania applies a discriminatory industrial development levy on Kenyan goods including tractors, charges the full 35 percent common external tariff on Kenyan-made Zesta jam, and imposes excise duties on Kenyan chocolate, paints, confectionery, tobacco, soaps, detergents and bleaches.
Tanzania also charges a US$100 fee on Rwandan nationals who cross into the country more than three times in a month and levies high charges on milk from Uganda. Uganda’s Independent newspaper, reporting from the Kampala meeting in May, confirmed that delegates singled out the US$100 entry fee and Tanzania’s truck charges for immediate removal.
Kenya is not blameless. Its five barriers include a transit fee of Sh2,000 (about US$15) on Burundian trucks passing through Kajiado county, excise duty on tiles from Tanzania, a 25 percent excise duty on aluminium products from Uganda and duties on Ugandan fish. Rwanda charges a 39 percent excise duty on Kenyan juice and re-tests Kenyan products at its food and drug authority, while DR Congo has suspended transfers of cement, clinker, soft drinks and beer from Uganda.
A deadline that came and went
At the 25th Ordinary Summit of EAC heads of state in Arusha on March 7, 2026, the presidents noted with concern the barriers choking intra-regional trade and directed that all of them be resolved by June 30, 2026. The East African Business Council, the region’s private-sector lobby, confirmed the directive in a March statement.
That date has now passed. A report by the bloc’s Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment says little progress has been made, with most countries saying they need time to review the laws behind their levies.
The political promises have kept coming anyway. During President William Ruto’s state visit to Dar es Salaam in May, he and Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan committed to eliminating all barriers by mid-2026. Traders are still waiting for border realities to match the executive orders.
The cost to exporters
Kenya’s exports to Tanzania dropped to Sh2.6 billion (about US$20 million) in February, the lowest since May 2021, when shipments stood at Sh2.4 billion (about US$18.5 million), according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. Exports to Uganda fell to Sh6.6 billion (about US$51 million), the weakest since August 2022, when Kenya’s general election disrupted trade.
Frustrated by unpredictable blockades and permit delays, exporters are looking outside the bloc. Ugandan dairy processors, for example, have pursued markets as far away as Nigeria for surplus production originally meant for regional neighbours.
The result: trade among EAC members has stagnated at around 15 percent of the bloc’s total trade, far below what a functioning common market should deliver.
A long habit of tit-for-tat
Kenya and Tanzania have traded protectionist blows for years. In February 2024 Tanzania briefly stopped issuing new tea import permits to Kenyan traders. In August 2024 Kenya slapped a two percent levy on cereals and legumes from Tanzania, then suspended it after traders protested. In March 2025 Tanzania imposed levies on Kenyan eggs, dairy, meat and confectionery.
The bloc’s trade ministers reported last year that the number of barriers jumped from 10 in November 2024 to 48 in May 2025, blaming new discriminatory laws and the failure to notify or resolve breaches of EAC rules.
What is still unverified
Tanzania’s government had not publicly responded to the committee’s findings at the time of writing. The exact count of outstanding barriers varies slightly between documents: the May Kampala meeting record put it at 27, while the figure reported this week is 28, suggesting one barrier was added or reclassified in between.
This report is based on The EastAfrican’s coverage of August 31, 2026, corroborated by Uganda’s Independent newspaper and the East African Business Council.
Frequently asked questions
What is a non-tariff barrier?
A non-tariff barrier, or NTB, is any obstacle to trade that is not an import or export duty. Examples include special levies, import quotas, permit delays, extra inspections and road user charges that make cross-border trade slower or more expensive.
How many trade barriers is Tanzania responsible for?
Eleven of the 28 outstanding barriers in the East African Community’s elimination programme, or 39.3 percent, according to the bloc’s Regional Monitoring Committee. Kenya follows with five, and DR Congo and Rwanda have four each.
What is the East African Community?
The East African Community, or EAC, is a regional bloc of eight countries: Burundi, DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Its customs union and common market protocols promise free movement of goods, but non-tariff barriers keep trade among members stuck at about 15 percent of their total trade.
Was there a deadline to remove the barriers?
Yes. EAC heads of state, meeting in Arusha on March 7, 2026, ordered all outstanding barriers resolved by June 30, 2026. The deadline has lapsed, and the bloc’s trade council says most member states still need time to change the laws behind their levies.
Connected Coverage
This story belongs to our coverage of Eastern Africa and to our running series on the contest for the continent, Africa: The New Scramble.
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