Rwanda’s Minister for Trade and Commerce Francois Kanimba has warned of cracks in the East African Community if member states fail to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe.

Mr Kanimba said politicians should put the region’s collective gains ahead of individual state interests and put ink to paper on what he believes is a “good deal” for the region.

“The issues being raised against the EPA are issues that have really been taken care of and sufficient safeguards have been put in the final agreement to ensure the protection of our infant industries,” he said.

“If in the future there is a threat to our economies, we can renegotiate. The EPA is not a bible. We agreed that after every five years, we totally renegotiate and evaluate the agreement. If at any time any member state feels disadvantaged by the EPA, it can raise the issue for discussion,” Mr Kanimba added.

He termed the EPA a “strong commercial benefit from a trade perspective,” views that are not supported by Tanzania and Uganda.

Former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa wrote an article in The EastAfrican asserting that the costs of signing the EPA will be higher than the benefits.

“As a least developed country, Tanzania already enjoys the Everything but Arms preference scheme provided by the European Union. We can already export duty-free and quota-free to the EU market without providing the EU with similar market access terms,” he wrote.

READ: EPA is bad news for the entire region- Mkapa