Fifth round of sugar safety net looming

What you need to know:

  • All decisions approved by the council are ratified by the Comesa summit, the highest decision-making organ comprising heads of state.
  • “The Kenyan sugar sector should be given a one-year extension of their existing safeguard, subject to review and renewal, for another one year,” reads a recommendation from the committee.

Kenya has inched closer to being granted another round of protection against unregulated sugar imports from the 19-member Comesa trading bloc.

In what is increasingly becoming a familiar route taken by Kenya to protect its struggling uncompetitive industry, Comesa trade and customs committee has agreed to the country’s latest application for more time to revamp the local sector.

“The Kenyan sugar sector should be given a one-year extension of their existing safeguard, subject to review and renewal, for another one year,” reads a recommendation from the committee.

The team was mandated to process the country’s request by the council of ministers, in whose hands now lies the nation’s fate as it is expected to meet at the end of this month.

RATIFIED BY COMESA

All decisions approved by the council are ratified by the Comesa summit, the highest decision-making organ comprising heads of state.

The extensions, which have been granted since 2003, could come as a relief to farmers in western Kenya that has all the sugar mills and where sugarcane cultivation is a major economic activity.

The country first sought Comesa protection in 2002 before it was extended in 2003 through a four-year window to allow the government institute reforms that would make the sector internationally competitive.