The paper examined if the exchange rate effect to trade balance has J curve shapes within East African Community members. The recently developed method of Non-linear ARDL was utilized for Quarterly data from 1990 Q1 to 2019 Q4. The study found no evidence of asymmetric effect of exchange rate on trade balance for four countries with the exception of Uganda. Henceforth, there was no evidence of robust J-curve phenomena within EAC members. Generally, the application of exchange rate policy in improving trade imbalance is doubted within EAC region.

Keywords: EAC, J curve, ARDL