by Fred Aminga @faminga Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between East African countries and Europe will feature at the Unctad 14 as an example of how trade agreements can be disruptive in developing nations.
The conference is going on at a time when Kenya’s preferential status with the European Union under the EPA arrangements is facing headwinds and risks paying over 30 per cent duties on exports such as flowers, fruits, fish and vegetables to the lucrative market.
Kenya’s fortunes started dwindling after Britain voted to leave the European Union (EU) through a referendum, popularly known as Brexit, but the situation has now been worsened by allegations that Tanzania and Uganda are pulling out of the deal to go it alone.
Trade experts and government officials insist that while the Unctad forum will dwell on its multilateralism agenda—broader global trade and development issues—but not EPA issues, there is no stopping participants from highlighting EPAs as an example of emerging issues affecting developing countries in light of developments within the EU.
“The conference will deal with multilateralism issues but not necessarily EPAs issues which are trading arrangements between EAC and the EU,” said director for Economic Affairs and International Trade at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nelson Ndirangu. However, Kenya Investment Authority managing director Moses Ikiara says “it could be used as an example of trading issues harming developing countries.”
He pointed out that there are many sessions during the conference where the EPAs issue could be raised and discussed. Kenya would want to continue enjoying 30 years of duty and quota-free access to the world’s largest EU market if the EPAs are ratified this year, but this will now depend on whether other EAC member countries change their minds and ratify the trade protocol with their respective parliaments by October 1, 2016.
The EAC negotiated as a bloc, which means that if the two opt out of the deal, Burundi and Rwanda are also hanging on the balance. The withdrawal could also have a significant effect on the EAC trading bloc as the region moves towards setting up a monetary union, threatening the union’s stability.
Another bone of contention is that the EAC membership consists of Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan—all of which are least developed countries, or LDCs—and Kenya, which is not an LDC. Experts say it will be interesting to see how trade between Kenya—EAC’s largest trading partner— and the other regional states pans out because Uganda and Tanzania account for 42 per cent of Kenya’s overall trade.
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