ABSTRACT
This chapter scrutinizes the phenomenon of informal cross-border trade (ICBT) within the East African Community (EAC) through following traders' incentives to rely on informal trade channels despite deepened trade integration. It provides new micro insights about the challenges that regional integration in the EAC encounters and will attempt to position ICBTs in the debate around regional integration. The chapter offers an overview of EAC integration and presents case studies of two ICB traders. It makes assumptions about informal traders' role in regional integration and shows the case for an analysis of regional integration from a micro perspective. The chapter points out the strategies refraining from business expansion to the time-consuming bypassing of control posts, or tolerating blackmailing and bribery. The EAC partner states share a history of regional cooperation that was institutionalized between the then British colonies as a Customs Union (CU) which led to further cooperation with a Common External Tariff (CET) and harmonization in currency, education and postage.
