{"id":39250,"date":"2026-07-10T10:05:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T08:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=39250"},"modified":"2026-07-10T10:05:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T08:05:39","slug":"eac-secretary-general-urges-action-on-border-delays-to-unlock-trade","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/eac-secretary-general-urges-action-on-border-delays-to-unlock-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"EAC Secretary General urges action on border delays to unlock trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC), Ambassador Stephen Mbundi, has issued a strong call to action for partner states to dismantle persistent non-tariff barriers and clear border bottlenecks that continue to stall intra-regional trade.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the urgent need for deeper regional integration, Mbundi stressed that infrastructure development alone cannot drive economic growth if bureaucratic red tape and border delays keep trucks stranded for days at crossing points.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He urged the regional private sector to embrace the EAC as a single, unified market. He also challenged local business leaders to think beyond national borders and aggressively harness the collective trade opportunities presented by the bloc&#8217;s expanding population.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Regional trade experts have long pointed out that cross-border friction, ranging from arbitrary customs checks to harmonisation delays, effectively acts as a tax on local businesses, keeping East African commodities less competitive on both regional and global stages. Mbundi noted that resolving these logistical issues is critical to realising the full potential of the EAC Customs Union and Common Market frameworks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica\/EAC&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34336,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-39250","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"EAC calls for end to border bottlenecks to boost trade","published_date":"2026-07-10 09:26:45","news_description":"EAC calls for end to border bottlenecks to boost trade","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39251,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39250\/revisions\/39251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}