US trade rep in Nairobi as Kenya's solo deals worry the EAC block [incl. Readouts]
![US trade rep in Nairobi as Kenya's solo deals worry the EAC block [incl. Readouts]](https://agoa.info/images/articles/16240/_thumb2/tainairobi.jpg "US trade rep in Nairobi as Kenya's solo deals worry the EAC block [incl. Readouts]")
The US trade representative is in Nairobi to co-lead a meeting that seeks Kenya's partnership in a fresh trade deal.
The Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA Council) is pursuing various agreements even as regional peers express concern over Kenya's solo approach.
Yesterday, Trade Representative, Katherine Tai met patron circle members of the American Chamber of Commerce-Kenya (AmCham Kenya) ahead of today's meeting.
"The meeting marks the fifteen-year anniversary of the US–EAC TIFA and comes as the Biden-Harris Administration intensifies engagement both bilaterally with Kenya and throughout the continent,'' the US said in a statement.
The US signed the TIFA deal in 2008 with EAC to deepen trade ties as well as lead efforts to attract American investments into the regions.
Tai is expected to meet President William Ruto and Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria as Washington accelerates negotiations of the proposed US-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP).
The deal targeting 11 pillars of trade will replace the two-decade-old Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
The US negotiators held the first round of conceptual discussions with the Kenyan team led by Trade Principal Secretary Alfred K’Ombudo between February 6-10 in Washington DC.
The two nations seek to partner on trade facilitation in agriculture, fostering consumer, business and worker trust in the digital economy, protecting the environment, integrating small traders into international trade and preventing and combating corruption.
However as the two countries work towards the 2024 deadline to seal the trade deal, it is emerging that Kenya's regional peers are disgruntled.
A source close to East Africa Community secretariat told the Star in confidence that led by Tanzania, other EAC members states are concerned about Kenya's solo trade deals that do not factor in regional integration.
"The US–EAC TIFA meeting today could have emanated from those concerns. Regional peers are yet to heal from Kenya's recent solo mission to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (Epa) with the European Union,'' he said.
The signing of the trade deal in June brought an end a ten-year block on the EPA, originally negotiated with the then six-nation EAC only to be blocked by several of its members.
The deal now awaits the endorsement by the European Parliament. Kenya continues to enjoy duty and quota free trade with the EU under a temporary special arrangement in place since 2014.
Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda refused to sign the EPA with Brussels on the grounds that it would require them to open up their own economies to European firms.
"There are concerns among EAC officials that the EU's access to Kenya's market could undermine the region's common external tariff, and they say that Kenya's trade talks with the US could do the same,'' the EAC official said.
Even so, the US has been brushing off the concerns, with Washington insisting that any trade agreements in Africa will adhere to the ambitions of more integration and trade as per the African Union.
“Right now we are pursuing a number of different initiatives, one of them in a very multilateral context in the Indo-Pacific,” Tai said last year when she led the US delegation to President William Ruto's inauguration.
Already, there are jitters around the importation of second-hand clothes, with the EAC seeking a ban on the trade through the increase of taxes on cotton by member states.
The US government has made it clear that it has no plans to change its policy on the exports of second-hand clothes.
“I think that there are some clear trade discipline concerns from a strict WTO legal standpoint. But I will be very interested to hear Kenya’s perspective and the EAC's perspective about the goals that they are about to accomplish,'' Tai told a regional paper last year.
This goes against the 2016's plan by five East African countries; Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda to ban Mitumba importation.
Download a readout issued by the USTR at the above download link.
Read related news articles
Kenya President Ruto joins US-Kenya business roadshow in San Francisco
Kenya's President William Ruto will address leading US technology companies and investors on Friday at the US-Kenya Business Roadshow in San Francisco organised by the American government’s Prosper Africa initiative. The roadshow - also co-organised by the US Embassy in Nairobi - highlights the business and investment potential in Kenya’s booming tech sector, a statement from the US Embassy in Kenya said. The event is part of a...
15 September 2023
Kenya-US trade agreement 'may need a rethink on workers'
The US and Kenya announced a trade and investment partnership in July 2022. Talks have been progressing on the way forward in nine areas, including agriculture, anti-corruption, digital trade, environment and climate change action, and workers’ rights and protections. The Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP) will be the first significant trade partnership between the US and a country in sub-Saharan Africa. Countries in the...
16 August 2023
AGOA boosts Kenya's textile exports to US, sector sees 7.2% growth
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has benefitted Kenya’s textile and apparel sector, leading to monthly exports to the tune of Sh4.5 billion, or Sh150 million per day, last year, according to a study by London-based Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). The programme has had a positive impact on the country’s export-processing zones (EPZs), especially in the textile and garment sector. Kenya is the second-largest exporter of...
08 August 2023
Biden cranks up diplomatic charm offensive in Kenya
In a span of two weeks, US President Joe Biden has dispatched two senior members of his administration to Nairobi with a firm message to President William Ruto on good governance, human rights and a subtle push on the geopolitics surrounding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And Kenya, a longtime Western ally, is under pressure to maintain trading ties with the US. The timing of the visit was significant as Russia hosted over 17 African...
29 July 2023
'US-EAC trade pact comes into life amid disharmony'
The Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (Tifa) between the US and the East African Community has begun taking shape, with a section of the bloc’s members keen on it and others still biding their time. This week, US officials were in Nairobi to conduct part of the negotiations on the US-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership and to meet Trade ministers from the region. On July 18, Trade ministers from Tanzania, Uganda,...
23 July 2023
US says AGOA renewal still an option for Kenya
The US says it may consider proposing to its lawmakers an extension of duty- and quota-free access to its market for sub-Saharan countries when the current deal expires in May 2025. [AGOA.info note: AGOA removes standard import tariffs, but not quotas). United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai, said another renewal of the preferential trade programme depends on the US Congress, but her office could facilitate it. “We are...
22 July 2023
Some uncertainty as negotiations on the US-Kenya trade agreement proceed without a fixed timetable
A recent report has shown that the United States is unsure when discussions for a free trade agreement with Kenya would be completed, notwithstanding the fact that Nairobi previously stated that the talks would be completed by December. The United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai, who wrapped up a three-day visit in Nairobi on Wednesday, stated that the US negotiators do not have a timetable for ending discussions or signing the...
20 July 2023
Kenya's president meets US delegates on trade and investments
Kenyan President William Ruto has today held talks with US Trade Representative, Ambassador Katherine Tai. The discussions were based on US trade policy. Ruto said that the country is ready to strengthen the already existing relations between the two nations. "We will stretch our ties beyond the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in the wake of advanced technology and climate change, for the full exploitation of our trade potential,"...
19 July 2023
USTR releases summaries from US-Kenya STIP negotiations
Consistent with the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to the highest levels of transparency in trade agreement negotiations, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) today released summaries of texts ( Download the document alongside or in the Kenya-US STIP section) proposed by the U.S. side during the first negotiating round of the United States-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP),...
23 May 2023
US boosts Kenya apparel industry with $55m in new trade deals
The US is giving Kenya $55 million for expansion of export processing zones in a move that will boost Nairobi’s apparel exports. US initiative Prosper Africa and the US Embassy announced the funding at the launch of the US-Kenya Business Roadshow held on April 25 in New York. The announcement was part of the commitments made by President Joe Biden at the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit last year. The funds will be channelled under USAid and...
29 April 2023
