Charts on Kenya’s Public Debt

These charts were presented during IEA’s tweetchat on #PublicDebtFactsKE

Kenya’s Economic Transformation

This presentation on Kenyan’s Economic Transformation was made by Mr. Kwame Owino and Kipkogei Kemboi during a Public Forum on KAM High-Level manufacturing Economic Forum held on 22nd October 2019 at Villa Rosa Kempinski Hotel Nairobi.

EAC -EU Economic Partnership Agreement: Context, Content And Consequences

As a member of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries, Kenya has had formal trade arrangements with the European Union since 1975 under the four Lomé Conventions between 1975 and 2000, and the Cotonou Partnership Agreement between 2000 and 2007. These agreements were non-reciprocal in the sense that even though most exports from ACP countries entered the Europe Union duty-free, imports from the EU to Kenya faced tariffs. Other members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) contested this preferential treatment of exports from ACP countries because the preferences were discriminative against them. Brazil, Australia and Thailand challenged preferences for sugar exports from ACP countries, and Latin American countries challenged preferences for banana exports.

EAC -EU Economic Partnership Agreement: Context, Content And Consequences

As a member of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries, Kenya has had formal trade arrangements with the European Union since 1975 under the four Lomé Conventions between 1975 and 2000, and the Cotonou Partnership Agreement between 2000 and 2007. These agreements were non-reciprocal in the sense that even though most exports from ACP countries entered the Europe Union duty-free, imports from the EU to Kenya faced tariffs. Other members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) contested this preferential treatment of exports from ACP countries because the preferences were discriminative against them. Brazil, Australia and Thailand challenged preferences for sugar exports from ACP countries, and Latin American countries challenged preferences for banana exports.

The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, Challenges and Opportunities

The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is a trading arrangement between the United States of America (USA) eligible Sub-Saharan countries and is among one of the number of trade arrangements that Kenya is party to that covers such as but not limited to trade, investment and cooperation. Kenya’s exports to the United States commenced in 2001 with a focus on exports of textiles and apparel. This bulletin therefore gives a review of AGOA, the achievements, challenges and policy options for the future

ANTI-DUMPING AS A TRADE REMEDY: The Way Forward for Kenya

In the international trade arena, there are occurrences that may make a country feel disadvantaged or injured in the course of conducting trade with other countries. Such injuries could result in small and infant industries of a country closing down due to inability to compete with the imports and loss of employment due to closure of companies. There are several trade remedies that can be adopted to deal with such situations: anti-dumping duties, safeguard measures, and countervailing duties. The focus here will be on anti-dumping duties.

The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 19941 provides the framework under which anti-dumping duties can be used. Kenya, who is a member of the WTO since 1995, can apply anti-dumping duties as long as she adheres to the rules governing anti-dumping as stipulated in Article 2 of the GATT 1994 on anti-dumping, commonly known as the WTO Agreement on Anti-dumping. The focus of this Bulletin is on the rules guiding anti-dumping and its application to Kenya.

TRADE REMEDIES: SUBSIDIES AND COUNTERVAILING MEASURES: Its Application in Developing Countries

Trade remedies are trade policy tools that a government can use to take remedial action against im­ports that hurt local producers. These policies are designed to provide relief from imports that are deemed unfair, or in other cases it is an adjustment from import surge. There are three primary types of trade remedies: anti-dumping, safeguards, and countervailing measures. Countervailing measure, which is the focus of this bulletin, is concerned with imposing duties that counterbalance the effect of subsidies that an exporting country offers to its domestic producers and businesses.

This measure is used to protect local industries against unfair trade practices. The use of countervailing measures is contained in the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM) in Article IV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994. Kenya is a member of the WTO and is, therefore, party to the ASCM. However, she has not used this trade remedy much since the agreement came into force.

TRADE REMEDIES: The Safeguards Measure and its Application in Selected Countries

International trade encompasses a host of countries, activities, functions, processes, products (goods and services) and people, tasked with various duties that are geared towards driving forward this lucrative field. International trade is currently conducted within the World Trade Organization (WTO) multilateral framework. Under this framework, there are rules that govern the manner trade transactions are conducted by Member countries of the WTO; this is because in the course of conducting trade, a host of challenges tend to occur.

The rules governing trade transactions are articulated in Article XIX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994. One common challenge that countries face in the process of trading is import surge, which can loosely be defined as an unusual increase of an import product. There is a legal provision of the WTO under Article XIX of the GATT which deals with remedies of import surges. As members of the WTO, countries like India, South Africa and Canada have domesticated the WTO Agreement on Safeguards; however, Kenya has not established the legal and institutional framework under which the WTO Safeguards Agreement can operate.

Economic Partnership Agreements, WTO Compatibility and Development for Kenya

This paper looks at the agreement establishing a Framework for an Economic Partnership Agreement (FEPA) between the East African Community (EAC) Partner states, on one part, and the European Community (EC) and its member states, on the other. This framework was put in place to comply with a deadline imposed by the WTO that the two parties should bring their trade relations in compliance with the WTO rules. The main objective of this bulletin is to review the compatibility of the FEPA with the current WTO requirements and to analyse the implications for development and poverty in Kenya.