The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) officially joined the Community of East African States (EAC) on Tuesday, the regional organization with a single market allowing free movement of goods and people.
The current president of the EAC, Kenyan head of state Uhuru Kenyatta, formalized the DRC’s membership at an extraordinary online summit of member state leaders.
“The entry of the DRC marks a momentous occasion in the history of the region’s integration,” said Uhuru Kenyatta.
“The EAC now stretches from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, making the region competitive and facilitating its access to the largest continental free trade area” (ZLEC, which includes several sub-regions of the continent), said the secretary general of the organization, Peter Mathuki.
The EAC, based in Arusha, Tanzania, now has seven members: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Uganda and DRC.
Founded in 2000, one of the goals of the EAC is to facilitate cross-border trade by eliminating tariffs between its member states. It established a common market in 2010. With a population of 90 million, the DRC brings the EAC’s potential market to nearly 300 million people.
Endowed with significant mineral resources, the country shares borders with all EAC member states except Kenya. It is already a member of three other regional trade organizations. The last country to be admitted into the EAC was South Sudan in March 2016.
