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other hand, the lending costs are high. However, liquidity problems limit the scale of individual trading business, resulting in high costs of operation, high prices and low demand.
4.5.9 The status of trade tariffs in ECA countries Government policies in the ECA countries are favorable for importations and investments. The states have established investment promotion agencies to create favorable conditions for investment. There are also Bureaus of Standards and Quality Control in the countries to control the qualities and standards of imported goods. This safeguards the health of consumers and quality of products. In general, there is favorable trade policy in the ECA region. The existence of Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and East African Community (EAC) trade policy favors inter-regional trade in goods and services. All the countries covered in this study, with the exception of Tanzania are members of COMESA and Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are members of the EAC. Then, all the study countries are members of either COMESA or EAC or both and this makes them beneficiaries of inter-regional trade agreements. Trade liberalization program of COMESA aims to create a single economic space in which there is free movement of goods, services, capital and labor (Chanthunya, 2004). The EAC also aims at widening and deepening cooperation among the partner states through policies and programs. In the economic sphere, the EAC will focus on regional integration of trade and investment policy, monetary and fiscal policy, and labor and capital markets (Economic analysis paper No. 2.1, 2001). The trade policy agenda of the EAC aims at turning the three partner countries into a single investment and trade area, in order to increase the volume of trade among them and with the rest of the world. The ultimate goal is to promote rapid economic growth and development, generate employment and uplift the standard of living of the East African people. Eventually, goods, labor, and capital will move freely among the three countries. EAC has now expanded to include Burundi and Rwanda, for which policies will have to be developed. This will further enhance easy and free regional trade. The government policy in Rwanda is very favorable for importation investment in whatever business. A Rwanda Investment Promotion Agency (RIPA) has been created to promote investments by setting up favorable conditions. There exists also the Rwanda Bureau of standards which controls the quality of imported and exported goods. Trade tariffs for frozen chips in Ethiopia are treated similarly to those of other products imported into the country. Importers are expected to pay 30% duty, 15% VAT and 3% withhold tax when M A R K E T S
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