EAST African Community (EAC) member states are gearing up to use the forthcoming 2025 East African business and investment summit in Nairobi to explore new avenues for conducting business with the United States.

Adrian Njau, the East African Business Council (EABC) acting executive director, said at a press conference here yesterday that the summit, slated for October 16–17, will serve as a strategic forum to craft post-AGOA trade frameworks and safeguard export markets, particularly for the textile sector.

Officials speak of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) as expiring in September next year but all indications are that the zero tariff arrangement is inoperative as the new reciprocal tariffs framework set by the Trump administration has everywhere been applied with instant effect, especially from April 1 and in some cases, lately by August 1.

The partner states, except for Rwanda and Uganda, have greatly benefited from zero tariff exports to the US under AGOA, interrupted by the new trade regime where EAC states have a 10 percent tariff requirement after initially being set at a higher level.

With the agreement now eclipsed, the summit presents a critical opportunity for the region to chart a new path forward, the director stated, irrespective of the fact that the new tariff arrangements apply on a country basis and only the European Union is handled as a trading bloc, analysts noted.

AGOA, enacted in 2000, allowed most sub-Saharan African countries to export more than 300 products to the US market duty-free, and even in the final years of the last US administration African states were still insisting that the pact be renewed, despite that it was spelt out as temporary even at its inception.

He said that EAC member states could explore a regional renegotiation of the deal or transform it into a bilateral framework to ensure trade stability, noting that the summit is not just another conference but a results-driven platform.

It will seek to shape policy, connect businesses and accelerate trade and investment ties across the EAC, the continent and beyond, he stated.

Organized by EABC in partnership with the East African Development Bank (EADB), the summit will run under the theme of promoting private sector-driven regional integration for increased intra- and extra-EAC trade and investment, with the mantra that EAC rises from reform to results in a thriving Pan-African market, he specified.

Bernard Mono, the EADB acting director general, said the bank’s sponsorship reflects its commitment to supporting sustainable, private sector-led development. “We see this summit as a catalytic platform to advance a shared vision of socio-economic growth and regional integration,” he asserted.

The 2025 summit will also tackle pressing global and regional trade issues, including the operationalization of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) and responses to climate change, digital transformation and the shifting tides of globalization, he added.