Kenya businesses 'want continued duty-free access'
The Biden administration has been clear that none of its trade negotiations cover tariffs. That includes talks with the U.K., the EU and the Indo-Pacific region, as well as the Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership talks with Kenya.
In Kenya’s case, the country already has duty-free access to the United States for most of its goods under the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
But the Biden administration has not said yet whether it supports renewal of that legislation, which expires in 2025.
So, in comments filed with the USTR, the Kenya Association of Manufacturers requested that duty-free access be continued, either as part of a bilateral trade agreement or through renewal of the nearly quarter century old AGOA program.
“With unemployment and under employment challenges in Kenya at a record high, the contribution of AGOA to creating job opportunities cannot be underestimated,” the group said.
The Corporate Council on Africa, a U.S. business group, also urged continuation of Kenya’s duty-free access, noting the West African country is “the largest AGOA exporter of apparel to the U.S., totalling $449 million in 2021 and accounting for some 50,000 direct jobs.”
But it’s “important that we have an agreement with Kenya that establishes a broader economic partnership that goes beyond AGOA’s unilateral preferences and addresses more than just tariffs and goods market access,” the CCA added.
Additional areas should include digital trade and financial services, as well as provisions that promote deeper foreign investment and protect investors from unfair treatment, the group said.
Trade activists at Public Citizen approached the market access question from the other side, arguing that it’s hard to see how a bilateral agreement with the United States would be better for Kenya than a simple renewal of the AGOA program since “history has shown that countries signing trade agreements with the United States have to make major anti-development concessions.”
The group urged USTR not to negotiate a traditional free trade agreement with Kenya because that would have “catastrophic policy and political repercussions.”