UK wins new trade deal in Kenyan market

Feb 22nd 2021- The ministry of industrialization, has revealed details in the new UK trade deal with Kenya, offering a 82.6 value to the UK. The trade pact will allow British firms to ship in goods duty-free for 25 years, opening 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 ban.

“Kenya is offering to open 82.6 per cent value of total trade to the UK over an extended transition period constituting of mainly raw materials, capital goods, intermediate products and all other essential goods,” Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina said.

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 and UK Parliaments are required to ratify the agreement in order to take effect although the 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.

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