EU, Kenya sign trade pact seen as model for East African states

The European Union signed a trade agreement with Kenya, giving the nation duty- and quota-free access to the bloc, a long-negotiated deal it said is open for other East African countries join.

The economic partnership agreement has been under discussion for at least a decade. While Kenya agreed to a joint pact in 2016, four East African Community members — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda — didn’t approve a regional deal. Except for Kenya, all EAC partner states are considered least developed countries and still enjoy duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market.

“This deal is open for other members of East African Community to join,” European Commission Executive Vice-President and Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis said at a ceremony in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. “The agreement between EU and Kenya is in fact a bilateral implementation of a regional agreement with Eastern African Community.” 

Kenya will engage the other East African Community member states and the 28 African nations in a tripartite free-trade agreement to join the bilateral pact, according to President William Ruto.

“Hopefully we can also take this all the way to the Africa Continental Free Trade Area so that we can build a bigger market, build a bigger consensus and be able to do more with the populations that exist between Europe and Africa,” Ruto said. 

Reciprocal Access

While Kenyan exports will have full access to the EU’s 28 markets from day one, it will reciprocate terms later and gradually, negotiators said. 

Talks have concluded and negotiating teams will expedite finalizing texts ahead of ratification and eventually entry into force of the agreement at the start of 2024, Ruto said. 

The pact will promote Kenyan agricultural exports and also encourage European companies to set up operations in the country to process raw materials. Kenya exports more than 70% of its flowers to the EU. The EU is Kenya’s second-largest trading partner with €3.3 billion ($3.61 billion) trade volumes in 2022, an increase of 27% compared to 2018, according to the bloc.