WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) on Friday praised the Obama Administration’s new trade cooperation agreement with the five nations of the East African Community (EAC) – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The agreement expands the Administration’s Trade Africa initiative, which, in 2013, was launched with the goal of deepening economic ties with Africa. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman joined the trade ministers from the five EAC countries to sign the new accord in Washington on Thursday.

“Africa remains the continent with the greatest opportunity for growth and partnership in the 21st century, and this agreement is a great step forward to strengthening east African economies and creating new economic opportunities for American businesses,” Senator Chris Coons said. “When approached with a spirit of partnership, increased trade can have benefits for everybody involved, creating good jobs, raising wages, and raising standards. President Obama has done a great job working building deeper partnerships with countries across Africa that will pay dividends for years to come. We have much to gain from moving our relationships from aid to trade, and I look forward to working with the Administration and my colleagues in Congress to continue on this path.”

As the former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs and a current member, Senator Coons has long been a strong proponent of building stronger economic and political partnerships with Africa, and continues to work on behalf of Delaware businesses to ensure that trade agreements are fair to American workers. Senator Coons spent time as a young man studying in Kenya.

The United States exported $2 billion in goods to the EAC in 2014, a year that saw total trade grow by 52 percent. Total trade between the U.S. and EAC has grown 103 percent over the past five years.

The U.S.-EAC Cooperation Agreement commits both the EAC and the United States to three objectives:

Implement the WTO’s trade facilitation agreement

The Agreement commits the parties to cooperate on customs issues, including the implementation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement, reducing red tape and unnecessary formalities at borders decreasing border release times, and implementing other positive reforms laid out in the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement to help streamline and facilitate trade. This will build on the EAC’s own work on customs reforms, which have resulted in substantial reductions in the time and costs of moving goods across borders within the EAC. For instance, container transit times from Mombasa, Kenya, to Kigali, Rwanda have declined from 21 days several years ago to six days, while associated transport costs are down by over $1,700 per container.

Enhance food safety, plant and animal health

The Agreement provides for U.S.-EAC cooperation and capacity building related to food safety and animal and plant health standards. While a majority of the region’s people are involved in agricultural production or processing, the export potential of these products is currently limited. The Cooperation Agreement will help the EAC meet international standards by bringing U.S. technological expertise to bear and fully implement the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, which will help the EAC Partner States increase food security and create additional export opportunities for products produced in the region.

Build capacity to meet global standards

The Agreement provides for U.S.-EAC cooperation and capacity related to technical regulations, standards, testing, and certification – for example, by helping to train East African standards officials and developing electronic systems for engaging the public and interested stakeholders on new proposed technical regulations. This will help increase the EAC partner States’ ability to meet international quality and safety standards by improving full implement of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. Both U.S. and African international competitiveness is enhanced when countries meet international standards and avoid unnecessary differences among technical regulations and standards developed independently and separately by each nation, national standards organization, or company.