25 years of Trade Manipulation by UK

25 years of Trade Manipulation by UK

The monster Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between Kenya and United Kingdom is an injury to the Kenyan economy that is already on its knees. How many jobs do we lose by allowing duty free goods in our country? How many Kenyan firms are going to close down? What trade agreement does a colony freely negotiate with its former colonizer? The level of commercial development in UK cannot be compared to Kenya which is struggling to feed and treats its citizens with borrowed money. United Kingdom should allow our raw materials to enter their market duty free since our finished products no not meet their market highly protected standards.

How many jobs are we going to create if we keep allowing duty free goods in our country? What trade agreement does a country that was colonized by UK negotiate with its former master. Considering the difference in economic progress between Kenya and UK the trade agreement is supposed to be the other way. UK should allow our raw materials such as coffee, tea, fruits & flowers to enter their market duty free. Kenya’s trade agreement with UK will allow British firms to ship in goods duty-free for 25 years. The post-Brexit trade agreement with the UK will open the window for British companies to flood the local market with finished and unfinished goods.

 

 In an attempt to protect Kenyan farmers and factories the agreements states that the duty-free deal excludes agricultural and industrial products at the expiry of a seven-year moratorium. Kenya parliament has been requested to rectify Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) signed between Kenya and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). The request by the Ministry of Industrialisation, Trade and Enterprise Development will give life to the agreement that is threatening the life of Kenyan firms, increasing the already high numbers of unemployment and killing the few firms that have survived the Covid-19 pandemic.