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{
    "id": 794429,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/794429/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 228,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Onyiego",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1417,
        "legal_name": "Silvanus Osoro Onyiego",
        "slug": "silvanus-osoro-onyiego"
    },
    "content": "The main objectives of the Agreement are to increase intra-regional trade through the establishment of a larger market with a single economic space and to address the challenges of multiple memberships by harmonising rules and policies such as health and technical standards, rules of origin and customs, trade facilitation and transit issues with a long-term goal of moving to other deeper levels of integration. What could be the national interest of this Agreement? In simple terms, this is for the benefit of advancement of economic prosperity of Kenya and her people. Kenya has been trading with Africa as much as it has been trading with the rest of the world. As we said earlier, Kenya’s exports to Africa range between 41 per cent and 45 per cent in the last decade. They have mostly been to the EAC and COMESA markets. Policies such as the rules of origin, customs’ cooperation and technical and healthy standards have been harmonised. This will facilitate ease of movement of goods and business people. Under the Big Four Agenda as I said earlier, the share of manufacturing to GDP is to be raised from the current 9 per cent to 15 per cent by the year 2022. This Agreement will, therefore, be important for the realisation of this objective since majority of Kenya’s exports to Africa are manufactured goods. However, there are obligations imposed by this Agreement. One of them is the liberalisation of tariffs. It will be done immediately upon entry into force of the Agreement. It will be between 60 and 85 per cent of the total tariff lines. The EAC has negotiated as a bloc and has finalised tariff offers for liberalisation for countries that are not in the FTA. Those countries are Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mozambique and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) which includes Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland. During the Tripartite Summit held on 10th June 2015 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, His Excellency the Deputy President Hon. William Samoei Ruto and head of the Kenyan delegation expressed Kenya’s interest to host the secretariat for the Tripartite FTA. What are the policies and legislative considerations? The Agreement will be implemented in accordance with the existing domestic legislation, as said earlier. Kenya has enacted the Trade Remedies Law and is currently setting up the requisite institutions to operationalise trade defence measures and mechanisms. These measures are contained in the Agreement. They include anti- dumping, as said earlier and safeguards to protect infant and strategic sectors from unfair competition. Equally, we have financial implications over this. This is where the rubber meets the road. The Ministry responsible for trade will need resources for implementation of the Agreement to pay the annual subscriptions and costs of sensitisation of various stakeholders. The summary of the process leading to the adoption of the Agreement is as follows: Negotiations to the Agreement began when the tripartite Heads of State held a meeting on 22nd October 2008 in Kampala, Uganda. The official launch of the Agreement took place during the second Tripartite Summit held on 12th June 2011 in Johannesburg. The conclusion of the same was done after the adoption of the main outstanding annexes which was held in July 2017 in Kampala, Uganda. This was concluded and signed on 10th June 2015. But, there are various Protocols and Annexures that had to be negotiated and adopted. To date, the Agreement has been signed by 22 out of 27 partner states and shall enter into force once the 14 partner states have ratified the agreement and deposited instruments of ratification. Upon looking at the agreement, the Committee made the following observations: The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}