Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and Enterprise Development Cabinet Secretary Betty C. Maina speaking at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, JKIA on Monday, January 18, 2021. FILE PHOTO | NMG Kenya’s trade pact with UK will allow British firms to ship in goods duty-free for 25 years.
The post-Brexit trade deal with the UK will, however, open the window for British companies to flood the local market with finished and unfinished goods that exclude agricultural and industrial products at the expiry of a seven-year moratorium.
The details of the trade agreement were revealed by the Ministry of Industrialisation, Trade and Enterprise Development as it asked Parliament to ratify the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) signed between Kenya and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK).
Nairobi signed a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK on December 8, preserving duty- and quota-free access of exports after London formally exited the European Union (EU) on December 31, 2020.
“Kenya is offering to open 82.6 per cent value of total trade to the UK over an extended transition period (up to 25 years with a seven- year moratorium) constituting of mainly raw materials, capital goods, intermediate products and all other essential goods,” Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina said in an explanatory memorandum accompanying the EPA that was tabled in Parliament on December 22, for ratification.
The National Assembly’s Trade, Industry and Cooperatives committee on Thursday tabled its report on its consideration of the EPA, setting the stage for debate by the House.
Kenya and UK Parliaments are required to ratify the agreement in order to take effect although the House of Lords — Britain’s upper house of Parliament – has backed a proposal by its International Agreements Committee for a 21-day extension of the initial February 10 ratification deadline.
The delay proposal is also attributed to the fact that the UK government has not explained what other options it considered for ensuring continuity of trading arrangements with Kenya and why it chose not to replicate the EU’s Market Access Regulation (MAR) that guided economic partnerships between the two sides prior to Britain formally ditching Brussels in December 2020.
Kenya exported Sh49.5 billion goods to UK last year up from Sh39.7 billion in 2019 while imports from UK dropped to Sh29.3 billion from Sh35.3 billion over the same period.
Kenya imports vehicles, machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers, pharmaceutical products, printed books, paper and paperboard, articles of pulp, paper and board newspapers, pictures and beverages, […]
