CS Mohamed leads a delegation that includes Principal Secretaries Chris Kiptoo of Trade, Betty Maina of East African Community and other government officials/COURTESY
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 30 – Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed is in Brussels to make the case for Kenya to maintain duty free market access to the European Union come October 1, 2016 when the Market Access Regulation (MAR) expires.
This comes in the wake of heightened diplomatic efforts by the East African Community Partner states to resolve issues that have stalled the signing of the pact.
CS Mohamed leads a delegation that includes Principal Secretaries Chris Kiptoo of Trade, Betty Maina of East African Community and other government officials.
The agreement has been ready for signing after undergoing translation into the EU official languages and Kiswahili.
The signing of the EPA, which was scheduled to happen on July 18, 2016, did not take place as a result of a request by some EAC Partner States not to sign at the time due to circumstances that they were facing.
“This development poses a great risk to Kenya unless it is addressed before the deadline of 1st October 2016 that the EU put for EAC to sign and ratify the EPA in order for EAC products to continue accessing the EU market on duty free quota basis”, said Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed.
The government has been undertaking high level bilateral consultations with EAC Partner States geared towards agreeing on alternatives for signing of the EPA over the past 3 months.
This matter is also to be deliberated upon in the EAC Summit that has been convened for early September.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has tasked CS Adan Mohamed with resolving the impasse.
