As East African countries race to secure Post-Brexit bilateral trade deals with UK, a rift has manifested itself among member states with no clear plan to negotiate a collective trade agreement between EAC and the United Kingdom.  This failure by member countries to reach a concrete deal with the UK as a block by December 31, has left Kenya vulnerable with no clear head way to navigate the intricacies exposed with the Post-Brexit while Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi will continue trading with the UK under preferential terms by virtue of their classification as Less Developed Countries.

Kenya’s multimillion-dollar trade with Britain hangs in the balance after its East African Community partners failed to agree on the timeline for negotiating a new, Post-Brexit trade deal. Attempts to negotiate a collective trade agreement between the EAC and the United Kingdom have failed to make any substantive progress, making Kenya stand perilously close to a cliff edge, peering down at the prospect losing its $393 million exports market due to its classification as a Lower Middle-Income Country. By large extent, Kenya's economy is going to be hard hit if it doesn't secure a deal before December, 31.

With Britain having already exited the European Union early this year, the EAC has until December 31, to negotiate a deal that guarantees all member countries tariff and quota free access to the UK market, similar to the current agreement with the European Union. While other EAC member countries have an opportunity to continue accessing the UK market beyond this deadline, Kenya considered a lower middle-Income Country could see its goods subjected to a raft of costly tariffs and export quotas, fragmented supply chains and restrictions on services.

Among EAC member countries, it's Kenya which has been reaping big from the old trade set up with the UK with Kenya’s exports and imports from the UK worth $742 million last year, compared with $91 million for Uganda and Tanzania’s $231 million. Kenyan negotiators have up to December to reach a deal that would ease bilateral trade between her and UK. However, observers say that a deal that would secure interests of both parties looks difficult to clinch given the sharp faultiness existing with EAC block and the complexity of negotiating a bilateral trade within a customs union with diverse and competing interests.