• Upon ratification, the agreement will deliver significant benefits to Kenya and its partners in the EAC region.
• The deal is envisaged to deepen the EAC integration by ensuring that exports from the EAC countries continue to enjoy duty and quota-free access to the UK and the EU markets, when the UK leaves the EU on December 31, 2020.
Kenya and the United Kingdom on Tuesday signed a strategic Economic Partnership Agreement seeking to secure the mutual interests of the two partners after Brexit.
Image: MINISTRY
Kenya and the United Kingdom on Tuesday signed a strategic Economic Partnership Agreement seeking to secure the mutual interests of the two partners after Brexit.
The EPA deal comes after the conclusion of recent negotiations between the two countries.
The agreement replicates the effects of the East African Community with the European Union that facilitates EAC exports, free of duties and quotas, to the European Union market.
Upon ratification, the agreement will deliver significant benefits to Kenya and its partners in the EAC region.
The deal is envisaged to deepen the EAC integration by ensuring that exports from the EAC countries continue to enjoy duty and quota-free access to the UK and the EU markets, when the UK leaves the EU on December 31, 2020.
This trade agreement will ensure that all companies operating in Kenya, including British businesses, can continue to benefit from duty-free access to the UK market.
It will support jobs and economic development in Kenya, as well as avoid possible disruption to UK businesses such as florists who will be able to maintain tariff-free supply routes for Kenya’s high-quality flowers.
Top goods imports to the UK from Kenya last year were in tea, coffee and spices (£121 million), vegetables (£79 million) and live trees and plants mostly flowers (£54 million).
The UK market accounts for 43% of total exports of vegetables from Kenya as well as at least 9% of cut flowers, and this agreement will support Kenyans working in these sectors by maintaining tariff-free market access to the UK.
It will also benefit many of the approximately 2,500 UK businesses exporting goods to Kenya each year, including many UK suppliers of machinery, electronics and technical equipment, where continued tariff-free access will be guaranteed.
As one of the largest economies in East Africa, Kenya is an important trading partner for the UK.
Trade CS Betty Maina said the deal is grounded on the vision of Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who earlier this year agreed to negotiate a framework that will enhance trade and development cooperation between the UK and the EAC partner states.
“We have agreed on a comprehensive package of benefits that will ensure a secure, long term and predictable market access for exports originating from the EAC free trade area,” she said.
The CS said Kenya has a great opportunity to realize the mutual benefits that the two leaders envisaged when they agreed on the need for a post-Brexit partnership framework.
“Kenya has taken the lead in this process, considering its strategic trade and economic position in the EAC region. This was underlined during the second Economic Development Forum held on November 13,” she said.
The deal recalls Kenya’s commitments within the framework of the World Trade Organization and will support African countries to realize their dream of an African Economic Community under the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement.
The new framework covers a host of other issues including barriers to free flow of trade between the UK and the EAC countries, constraints to foreign direct investment, intellectual property, e-commerce and government procurement.
UK's Minister for Africa James Duddridge said the deal provides the strongest possible platform for the United Kingdom, Kenya and the whole EAC, to expand trade relationships in the future.
"We will use this agreement as the catalyst to deepen our mutual prosperity alongside the other areas of cooperation in our Strategic Partnership with Kenya that includes security, sustainable development, climate change, and cultural pillars," he said.
Kenya’s High Commissioner to UK Manoah Esipisu said the negotiators agreed on shared approaches to trade and investment, including the need to adopt common rules of origin, broader acceptance of product standards and the EAC countries to deepen domestic reform and trade liberalization.
"This is about securing and protecting Kenya's annual £2 billion ecosystems of trade with the UK on which hundreds of thousands of jobs and millions of livelihoods depend. Delivery if this was our primary objective for the year and we are thrilled to be over the finishing line," Esipisu said.
He said under the agreement, the UK has underlined its commitment to enhancing its development cooperation support to the EAC countries to realize their development goals.
This includes investing in key sectors of Kenya’s economy to support the Government’s priority Big Four agenda and Kenya’s Vision 2030 development programs.
Deepening investment climate reforms in Kenya and the EAC countries will create opportunities for expanding trade and foreign direct investment from the UK and other source markets.