London, Nov. 4, GNA – The United Kingdom and Kenya have agreed to sign a trade agreement that would allow the East African nation to export its products, such as vegetables and flowers, duty free to the UK after it exits the European Union on December 31.
The UK’s Department of International Trade (DIT) said negotiations on the trade deal with Kenya were finalised on Tuesday and “will be formally signed shortly once it has been subject to checks”.
Over the weekend, the UK-based trade advocacy group, Traidcraft Exchange, urged the British government to strike trade deals with Ghana, Cameroon and Kenya to protect their farmers from new tariffs that could affect their exports.
Currently, the EU does not charge any tariffs on imports from African countries.
The proposed agreement with Kenya has moved the UK a step closer to signing a sixth trade deal in Africa.
The five agreements signed so far are with Cote d’Ivoire, the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) trade bloc, Morocco, the Southern Africa Customs Union and Mozambique (SACUM) trade group and Tunisia.
The main imports to the UK from Kenya in 2019 were in coffee, tea and spices (£121 million), vegetables (£79 million) and live trees and plants, mostly flowers (£54 million).
The UK market accounts for 43 per cent of total exports of vegetables from Kenya as well as at least nine per cent of cut flowers.
“This agreement will support Kenyans working in these sectors by maintaining tariff-free market access to the UK,” the DIT said in a statement.
“It also guarantees continued market access for UK exporters, who together sold £815 million in goods and services to Kenya last year.”
As the largest economy in East Africa and among the top 10 on the continent, Kenya is an important trading partner for the UK, according to the DIT.
The UK’s International Trade Minister, Ranil Jayawardena, said: “This deal gives businesses the certainty that they’ll be able to continue trading as they do now, supporting jobs and livelihoods in both our countries.”
The uncertainty of post-Brexit trade between the UK and African countries such as Kenya, Ghana and Cameroon, was highlighted over the weekend by Traidcraft.
But with the Kenya agreement, Ghana and Cameroon would now be expecting to strike a similar deal with the UK that would continue with their current zero-tariff trading arrangements.
In under two years, the UK government has signed or agreed in principle trade agreements with 52 countries whose total trade with the UK was worth £146 billion in 2019.
GNA