East African countries are working on a joint strategy to exploit the US preferential market access, which Washington has extended for another 10 years.

The strategy to be adopted in September by the five partner states will help consolidate their products and enable them to export as a bloc to meet US demand under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).

According to James Kiiru, from Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the partner states will retire their current national Agoa strategies and switch to the regional one.

“The aim is for the region to invest in economies of scale to supply the US market,” said Mr Kiiru adding, “It will reduce the cost of exporting to the US, especially on transport and at the same time save time for exporters.”

A Kenyan consultancy company, Pinnacle Development, has been tasked with formulating the EAC joint strategy. Robert Chutha, executive director of Pinnacle Development Consultants, said the regional strategy will be guided by the country-specific strategies, EAC value chains, regional industrialisation strategy and input from the stakeholders in the export industry.

The US Congress last month voted to extend the Agoa pact by 10 years. It will be renewed in October immediately after the expiry of the current agreement at the end of September.

READ: US Congress votes to extend Agoa by 10 years

The renewal and extension of the Agoa period is expected to give African countries ample time to build competitive capacity in the global market.

The agreement gives preferential market access to 39 countries in sub-Saharan Africa including all the East African countries to export a wide range of products to the US. The agreement allows African countries to export more than 6,000 products to the US duty free.