US gets tough in trade deal talks with Kenya administration
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai during a press briefing at Serena Hotel, in Nairobi, on July 19, 2023.
Kenya will be required to safeguard international human rights, combat corruption and run a fair and transparent licensing and regulatory system in its trade and investment dealing with United States, it has emerged amid ongoing talks for a bilateral trade deal.
Washington reiterated this week that the protection of freedom of expression and respect for human rights, including those for homosexuals, will form part of terms for the US-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP).
“We have been clear that trade policy must benefit all people. This has been part of the multilateral trading system for the last many decades,” US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said.
The US topmost trade official made the remark in reference to a letter sent to her office last month by members of Congress committed to LGBTQI+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Persons) equality, asking her to temporarily stop negotiations on a trade deal with Kenya.
The US lawmakers in the June 22 letter wanted her to pause the ongoing trade talks between Washington and Nairobi until she gets commitments from President William Ruto that he will veto the proposed law which seeks to criminalise LGBTQI+ rights.
The members of Congress, backed by earlier memorandums from dozens of US lobbies, have been angered by the Family Protection Bill, drafted by Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma, which seeks to outlaw promotion, recruitment, and funding of homosexuality in Kenya.
“We are especially concerned by the deteriorating human rights situation for LGBTQI+ people in Kenya and the possibility of Kenya enacting legislation similar to Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act,” the Congress letter read in part. “By undertaking special trade negotiations only with Kenya among all African countries, the Biden administration is elevating Kenya as a special U.S. partner and giving the current Kenyan government recognition and validation.”
The ongoing negotiations are a build-up to the bilateral agreement whose terms Kenya and the US started stitching together in July 2022 before the end of former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s term in office.
Kenya has long sought a full free trade agreement with the US to replace the two-decade-old Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) which expires in May 2025, but progress has been dragged by regime change in both countries.
The Agoa pact, first enacted in 2000 before renewal for 10 years in June 2015, allows duty- and quota-free access to the US for thousands of products like food and beverages, wood, plastics and rubber from sub-Saharan Africa, but Kenya has largely tapped the apparel line.
“One of the important questions that we are asking ourselves in the United States is whether our trade policies have been benefitting all of our people in different communities,” Ms Tai said on the final day of her three-day official trip to Kenya last Wednesday.
“In terms of how we engage with our trading partners in the trade dialogues that we have with various institutions that we have, we stand by this strong vision of creating inclusive prosperity through trade and economic policies. “
And that’s something that we stand by and we will not shy about advancing in all our trade engagement.”
The US trade official had earlier snubbed her Kenya’s counterpart, Mr Moses Kuria, for what sources said was related to Kenya’s Trade Cabinet Secretary’s vile attacks against the media for reporting about alleged graft in cooking oil import deals and opposition over anti-government demonstrations.
Ms Tai’s refusal to participate in meetings where Mr Kuria was present prompted President William Ruto to appoint Mr Adan Mohammed, a member of President's Council of Economic Advisors and former Industrialization minister, to lead talks on the bilateral trade.
Asked about her views on anti-government protests called by opposition chiefs, the US trade official said: “Freedom of expression and right to association are core tenets of every democracy. That is something that I want to be very clear about.”
The American negotiators, led by the Assistant US Trade Representative for Africa Constance Hamilton, had in April made it clear that Kenya commits to remove from office public officials charged with corruption offences as part of the terms for the proposed bilateral trade deal.
Additionally, Kenyan authorities will be required to maintain an updated record of secret shareholders of firms benefitting from State tenders in line with Section 93A of the Companies Act 2015.
“The text mandates procedures for the removal of public officials who are charged with or convicted of corruption, along with measures to prevent opportunities for corruption by members of the judiciary,” Ms Tai wrote in the summary of its proposals during the first negotiating round of the in Nairobi between April 17 and 20.
“To prevent the hiding of ill-gotten gains, the text also includes a provision requiring the maintenance of a central register for companies to report beneficial ownership information.”
The preliminary discussions for the proposed bilateral deal started in earnest in August 2018 when former President Uhuru Kenyatta made a bilateral visit to the White House.
The former presidents of the respective countries — Kenyatta and Donald Trump — at the time identified economic development and trade as the pillar of the “strategic relationship” between Kenya and the US.
The visit had come on the back of Mr Trump’s disastrous rhetoric on Africa and had seven months earlier infamously referred to nations on the continent as “shithole”.
