A Preliminary Analysis Of East African Community Custom Union

In Africa, East Africa is a very convenient geographic location, with wide land, abundant natural resources and pleasant climate. It also has high market potential. The East African Community consists of five countries including Kenya and Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. It is a regional organization established in 2001. The East African Community has played an important role on east African country's economic take-off, meanwhile the economic cooperation between China and East African Area has reached a new level.The East African Customs Union established in 2005, and launched a five-year transition phase from 2005 to 2010. From this year, The East African Community will completely abolished internal tariffs, to achieve the trade liberalization on goods in the region. The East African Customs Union has made remarkable achievements in five years. It only took five years to reach the goal of a comprehensive Customs Union while European Union took almost forty years. "The East African Community Treaty" and "The East African Community Customs Union Protocol," are the basis of establishing the basic legal framework of the customs union, and "the East African Community Customs Management Act" worked as the management mechanism, regulating import and export trade comprehensively and effectively in East Africa together with the two treaties mentioned above.With the further deepening of China-Africa cooperation, and forwarding process of East African Community integration, investment and export from China to the East Africa will increase inevitably. So, how to provide suggestion and services to Chinese investors becomes essential. The study on the East African regional integration just began and the research on the East African Customs Union is almost blank. The paper analyzed legal sources and the basic system of the East African Community Customs Union starting with the historical background of the East African Community, using various research methods. Then, the paper analyzed and highlighted the characteristics of the East African Customs Union comparing with Southern African Customs Union.It enables people to understand the organization deeply. The paper also analyzed the significance of the implementation of the East African Customs Union, the challenges they faced and the impact on China-Africa Cooperation. At the same time, the author gave her own viewpoints and suggestions to the Chinese investors with the hope that it can help Chinese investors and merchants to make better commercial decisions.