The East Africa Community is facing stable growth and progressive integration. As a cooperation partner, the EAC offers a multiplicity of opportunities and challenges. Development in sub-Saharan Africa is multi-faceted so as other African organisations it is a crucial partner for the EU. One could observe over the last decade a number of new trends of crucial signifi cance to the continent. The aim of this paper is the analysis which focuses on the implications, opportunities and challenges for the EAC economies in implementing the EPA. Nevertheless, its impact on the EAC countries highly depends on initial protection conditions. As it can be observed in Rwanda, African countries should seize the opportunity of economic partnership agreements (EPAs) between some regions and the European Union to strategically determine their external protection structures.
Key words: Economic Partnership Agreement, EAC, European Union, emerging markets,
market recapturing strategy
