Kenya Gov’t Urged to Suspend ‘Dangerous’ Trade Negotiations with the US
Econews Africa and the Kenya Small Scale Farmers Forum have called for the suspension of the ongoing trade negotiations between Kenya and the US, terming them dangerous.
Econews Executive Director Edgar Odari demanded that the government halts the talks until a stakeholders’ consultation is done to determine what should go into the final agreement.
“The negotiation is a dangerous state of affairs for it will kill local agriculture for there will be much consumption from the US,” Odari said at a media briefing on Wednesday.
He noted that while American stakeholders have given extensive comments to the US Trade Representative (USTR), Kenyan negotiators have failed to consult widely before embarking on the negotiations.
“We are particularly concerned with six key chapters being negotiated, including agriculture, digital trade, anti-corruption, good regulatory practices, environment, climate action and the chapter on protecting worker’s rights and protection,” he said.
“On the part of agriculture, we recommend that Kenya assess the cost of agricultural trade liberalization for Kenya and Kenyan farmers before negotiating the chapter.”
On his part, Kenya Small Scale Farmers chairman Lavi Mwololo took issue with the government’s move to lift the ban on genetically modified foods.
“We also note that the government has legalized Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) which we find very troublesome. While we remain opposed to GMOs and all forms of biotechnology, we note that the Government is giving away its policy leverage even before it commences negotiations,” he said.
“We urge the government to rethink the negotiation objectives and remove agriculture from the talk’s altogether.”
The next rounds of talks between Kenyan and their US trade officials for a Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP) will happen in Nairobi from April 17th.
Under the STIP, Kenya and the US agreed to start work to develop a roadmap for engagement in 10 key areas including agriculture, anti-corruption, digital economy, environment, climate change, transparency, good regulatory practices, MSMEs, workers’ rights, and youth and women participation.
Kenya is keen to ink a trade deal with the US ahead of the expiry of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) in 2025. AGOA gives Kenya and 40 other sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to the US market for over 6,000 products.
Comments (2)
A trade agreement is meant to make it easier to do business across the boundary. It's not foreign aid. Each country has responsibility over it's own products. If a country doesn't have the capacity,
the agreement becomes a good piece of people. AGOA is great, but Africa does not have the products. China is not in AGOA, but almost everything in US market is made in China.
No country ever prospered doing business with the US..whether you publish or refuse to publish my comment in fear of sanctions from the US, mwakilishi you owe us freedom of speech.