East Africa usually refers to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, but also includes the Sudan, Burundi and Rwanda, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and even Mozambique, Malawi and Madagascar (East, 2005). The Sudan and Somalia are sometimes considered North Africa ro Northeast Africa; Mozambique, Malawi and Madagascar are sometime included in Southern Africa; Burundi and Rwanda are sometimes considered part of Central Africa. Depending on the geography or geopolitics of the time, any of these countries may be considered part of East Africa, so should be considered when forming an East African Community.
There is currently an East African Community (EAC) regional Intergovernmental Organization(IGO) embracing Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (East African, 2005). It was founded in January of 2001, and is headquartered in Arusha, Tanzania. The new EAC is a customs union and paved the way for economic and ultimately political union between the three countries. In March, 2004, they signed another treaty setting up a new customs union which came into effect on January 1, 2005 under which Kenya, which is the richest of the three countries, will pay duty on its goods which enter Tanzania and Uganda until 2010.
A common system of tariffs has been established to apply to goods coming into those countries from other countries outside the EAC (East African, 2005). Rwanda was due to join the EAC in November 2005, and Burundi has applied to join also. Plans are underway to introduce a common currency, the East African shilling, to the EAC by 2009.
This is not the first attempt at an EAC (East African, 2005). The first such organization was in the 1930s and it fared well for 63 years, and when it collapsed in 1977, the three member states lost 63 years of cooperation and the benefits of economics on a large scale. Each had to reembark on the establishment of services and industries previously supplied at the Community level, and thi...