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{
"id": 749128,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/749128/?format=api",
"text_counter": 18,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Ochieng",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 2955,
"legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
"slug": "david-ouma-ochieng"
},
"content": "the last one year alone, we have seen Brexit and elections coming up with leaders that promise to be more nationalistic-looking than they have been before. During our time, we have seen in America people saying that we need to look at what happens internally more than what happens outside. Therefore, this Bill seeks to ensure that our industries, our bread earners, our employers, the producers of products that make this country move; the guys who pay taxes that make this country grow, are protected from unwarranted unfair trade practices from our partners from abroad. This Bill implements our obligations under the World Trade Organization (WTO), the East African Community (EAC) law, the COMESA law and the interim agreements that we recently ratified in this Parliament, namely, the economic partnership agreements between us and the European Union. These agreements allow countries that are members thereto to have instruments internally and enable them to respond to unfair trade practices from their trade partners. For example, the issue of maize that we are facing in the country. For a long time, this country used to produce enough maize and we used to export maize for a long time. But we are now being told that we are importing cheap maize from outside because we cannot produce maize in a cheaper way. The question that this Bill answers is what will happen the day Kenya is able to produce enough maize, but we still are swamped with a lot of maize imports from abroad? What happens with such situations? This Bill, for example, responds to questions like what happens when Eveready Company that produces batteries in the country is faced with a surge of imports from India, Thailand and all these countries to a level where it cannot compete with these products because they are selling cheaply. This Bill talks about three distinct areas that the country needs to respond to in case they happen. One is where the Government of China, for example, produces a bag of cement at Kshs600, but sells it here in Kenya at Kshs590. What is the economic sense? The Government of India produces cement at Kshs540 in India, but sells it here in Kenya at Kshs500. What is the profit? The profit is that once they are able to compete with the Bamburis and the Mombasa cement of the world, and then they are able to increase the prices in this country and recoup what they may have lost during the under-selling and push our guys out of the market. The moment you push out Bamburi in Mombasa and all those other cement manufacturers, you lose jobs and livelihoods. In the dairy industry, we have a lot of imports of dairy products from Europe. In Europe, their level of subsidising the dairy industry is very high to a level where, if they were to bring their milk products here, we will not compete with them - be it Ilara or Brookside or whoever it is. They cannot compete because in the USA or Europe, a cow farmer is given Kshs200 every day to keep the cow. In Kenya, the Government takes money from the farmer just because he keeps cows. So, we cannot compete. The question is how, as a country, we can ensure that our industry is competitive and is not being wiped out by unfair imports from abroad. In this Parliament, for the last three years alone - I have said this before and I will say again today - the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade has approved more than Kshs4 billion to resuscitate the leather industry. As that happens, Ethiopia and Italy are watching. They will lower the price of their leather products that are coming to Kenya to a level where our leather industry can never pick up. In that case, we are allowed then, under this law, to put a safeguard measure, to put a duty upon products that come from, say, India, Ethiopia and Italy, until our leather industry is able to pick up and can compete with the rest of the world."
}