Negotiations with the three countries forming the East African Community (EAC)273 to
reach what was the first agreement concluded between two multinational communities proved more complex. The three countries submitted a joint request in November 1963: right from the start of the talks they favoured an agreement corresponding to the second formula contained in the declaration of intent of the Six, the same choice as Nigeria. However, in the course of the negotiations, in 1965, they rejected the notion of reciprocal trade facilities. The matter was resolved in 1966 by establishing the principle of ‘dual membership’, whereby the three countries belonged to two different preferential areas: the Commonwealth and the area to be established by the Arusha Agreement, the same solution as for Nigeria.
Thus the Arusha Agreement was arrived at274, its structure basically identical to the one
drawn up with Nigeria. As concerns trade, imports into the Community from the three East African Community countries were subject to the customs arrangements of the Yaoundé Convention, with quantitative quotas for coffee, cloves and canned pineapple, so as to protect the Associated States. With respect to reciprocity for Community exports,
270 EP - Committee on Cooperation… - Report on the Agreement establishing an Association between the European Economic
Community and the Republic of Nigeria... Doc. 134/66... Op. cit.
271 EP resolution of 30 November 1966 on the Agreement establishing an Association between the EEC and the Republic of Nigeria
and annexed documents, OJ, 16.12.66, p. 3910.
272 The Agreement was in the process of being ratified by the Member States and Nigeria.
273 East African Community (EAC). This regional organisation brought together the three countries at the time when the Agreement
with the EC was signed (26 July 1968); the negotiations had begun with its predecessor, the East African Common Services Organisation, operational from 1961 to 1967.
the fiscal advantages were confined to 59 products representing 15% of the Community’s exports. Regarding the right of establishment, the Arusha Agreement was aligned with the one with Nigeria, whereas as concerns payments and capital movements it went less far than the Yaoundé Convention.
In institutional terms, the Agreement made provision for an Association Council with the related standing committee, an arbitration body and a Parliamentary Committee comprising nine Parliamentarians from the three African countries and an equal number of Members of the European Parliament275.
The report276 expressed a favourable opinion on the Agreement, pointing out that it could
also play a positive role for the Associated States by encouraging dialogue between French- speaking and English-speaking Africa. More generally, the extension of preferences to 22 African countries with 136 million inhabitants was deemed positive. The European Parliament277 endorsed this favourable opinion and the comments made by its Committee,
hoping that when it expired on 31 May 1969 the Agreement would be renewed for a term coinciding with that of the Yaoundé Convention.
In actual fact the Agreement never entered into force owing to ratification delays, but it nevertheless constituted a sound basis for the renewal which began to be discussed at the end of January 1969, when a European Parliament mission visited the East African Community. During talks with the principal parliamentary leaders of the EAC and its three Member States, the question arose as to whether, under the new Agreement, the African counterparts should continue to be third countries or should be Associated States. The African side favoured the second option and asked to be put on the same footing for trade purposes as the Associated States on the grounds that, in the course of two parallel sets of association negotiations, neither of the two groups of countries could claim protection from the other, as implicitly happens under the existing Arusha Agreement in favour of the Associated States278. The European Parliament279 pressed for the Agreement
to enter into force and, hoping that the association arrangements for Africa would be harmonised at the time of the renewal, broadly endorsed the stance of the East African States on this issue.
275 All that exists in respect of this Committee in the acts of the EP Committee on Development and Cooperation is a report and
a resolution on the first meeting, held in Nairobi on 27 and 28 November 1972. That meeting centred on the relations between the enlarged European Community, in particular with the accession of the United Kingdom, and the African countries. The debate focused especially on the offer of association extended by the Community to the independent Commonwealth States. The resolution of the Parliamentary Committee, annexed to the report cited below, alludes to the additional responsibility being assumed by the EEC in respect of the African States for which, after enlargement, the EEC would be the main outlet for their exports. The European Parliament supported the stance of the African Committee and held that the East African States must play a key role in the preparation and conduct of the forthcoming negotiations on the renewal of the Association between the EEC and the African countries, as well as in seeking common positions between the Associated States and the countries eligible for association (the Commonwealth countries). EP resolution of 10 May 1973 on the resolution of the Parliamentary Committee of the EEC-East Africa Association adopted in Nairobi on 28 November 1972, OJ C 37, 4.6.73, p. 51 following on from EP - Committee on Development...- Report on the resolution of the Parliamentary Committee of the EEC-East Africa Association adopted in Nairobi on 28 November 1972 (Doc. 255/72). Doc. 3/73. Rap: Bersani.
276 EP - Committee on Relations… - Report on the Agreement establishing an Association between the European Economic
Community and the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republic of Uganda and the Republic of Kenya and annexed documents (Doc. 117/68). Doc. 136/68. Rap: Moro
277 EP resolution of 1 October 1968 on the Agreement establishing an Association between the European Economic Community and
the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republic of Uganda and the Republic of Kenya, OJ C 108, 19.10.68, p. 25.
278 EP - Committee on Relations… - Report on the mission undertaken from 17 to 20 February 1969 by an EP delegation to the East
African Community in Arusha. Doc. 226/68. Rap: Bersani
279 EP resolution of 10 March 1969 on the mission of a European Parliament delegation to the East African Community, OJ C 41, 1.4.69,
The new Arusha Agreement was finally signed on 24 September 1969 and scheduled to expire on 31 January 1975, concomitant with the expiry of Yaoundé II. The new text essentially reproduced the previous one, thus excluding technical and financial assistance but with certain improvements for the African States, now Associated, as concerns trade. The report280 delivered a favourable verdict on the Agreement, noting:
...It is worth pointing out that, in many respects, the new Agreement constitutes progress as compared with the 1968 Agreement. Despite the anomaly of the ‘dual membership’ of East Africa in the preference systems of the Commonwealth and of the EEC, the structure of the Arusha Agreement appears reasonably well-balanced281.
Parliament endorsed the conclusions of its Committee282, regretting the failure to include
technical and financial assistance in the Agreement and recommending that the activities and structures of the two African Associations be coordinated.