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Members of the East African Community, which include Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, can however stay for up to six months in line with the bloc's policy.

The bloc sells far more to the United States than it imports from the US.

China and the EU, the other two big trading blocs, would be likely to answer back which could lead to "huge ramifications of a global trade war", the minister acknowledges.

At last year's general election, the party gained a record 72 seats on the back of a campaign that barely mentioned the EU at all, even though rejoining the bloc remains the party's long-term aim.

The European bloc's remarks came after undersea cables in the Baltic Sea were damaged by a suspected vessel, which the EU believes was part of Russia's shadow fleet.