Omingo Magara

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 101 to 110 of 349.

• 18 Feb 2009 in National Assembly: of correcting errors and translating the agreement to the various EU member states' national languages to make it ready for signing. Initialling of the agreement was necessary to avoid disruption of trade which was imminent on 31st December, 2007 when ACP-EU Partnership Agreement was to expire. If this country never initialled that agreement, all our trade between Kenya and the EU would have collapsed upon the expiry of that agreement in 2007. Therefore, most of our flowers would not have accessed the European market. view
• 18 Feb 2009 in National Assembly: Kenya, therefore, supports EAC/EC/EPA negotiations which, according to the agreed roadmap between EAC and EC, will be concluded in July, 2009. The interest of the country is to ensure that Kenya will get the best EPA that takes into account the country's national interests agreed by all stakeholders from the Government, private sector and the civil society in trade and trade related sectors. view
• 18 Feb 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I agree that my Ministry has not given this House sufficient information but I want to report to this House that in the last two weeks, we had a seminar in Mombasa involving hon. Members from the Departmental Committee on Agriculture, Lands and Natural Resources and the Departmental Committee on Finance Planning and Trade to bring them up to speed on the EPA negotiations, WTO and all those kinds of issues. Unfortunately, we appreciate and regret that the hon. Member could not attend that session and he had sent his apologies. My Ministry is taking ... view
• 18 Feb 2009 in National Assembly: As to KIPPRA's research that indicated we will be losing revenue, I can tell you that the loss without initialling EPAs could have been massive in terms of horticultural and floral industry, if we never initialled that. Why we went that way is because in WTO, nothing is agreed until all is agreed. Until the entire WTO arrangement is signified or signed, we cannot take full advantage. That is why we went for a stop-gap measure so as to have continuity. I am certainly sure that the trade links that we enjoy from the EU far supersede the 16 per ... view
• 18 Feb 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to correct the impression that this is a grey area as far as my Ministry is concerned. It is a grey area to my colleagues in the House because we have not been briefing them on a regular basis. This is evident from the fact that every time a Question is asked about trade, there are very few supplementary questions. Arising from the seminar we had in Mombasa and I am sure Dr. Khalwale may have been briefed about the progress, that is why we are getting an interest from the Floor about ... view
• 18 Feb 2009 in National Assembly: Now the EPAs signed between Kenya and the EU, which is anticipated to be signed by the EAC and supposed to be finalised by July this year, was, as I said, away from the bilateral trade arrangement which was going to open the link between us and the EU. As to the comfort levels of our EAC trading block, it is true that Kenya stands taller than most of the EAC member countries, and particularly our sister country, Tanzania which has developed some cold feet towards bilateral arrangement. But the problem is not about Kenya but about the treaty which ... view
• 18 Feb 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, that is why we are lowering our bargaining chip to accommodate them in the ring, as opposed to causing fear about Tanzanians. We have engaged the Tanzanian Minister. Basically, that is an issue which requires a bit of politics, and not necessarily diplomacy. This is because the political class, on the other side, had made some decisions which pushed them from the East African market to SADC. So, we must be able to negotiate at a fairly personal level and extend our hand to our brothers and sisters in Tanzania, so that they can appreciate ... view
• 18 Feb 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is true that my Ministry has not done well in terms of briefing Members of Parliament. However, I would seek the indulgence of the Chair that this Ministry be given some slots to be able to brief Members of Parliament fortnightly, because this is a dynamic area. Through the meeting that we had in Mombasa, there are resolutions and recommendations made by Members of Parliament, which we intend to bring to the Floor of the House in two weeks' time to be able to ventilate on the issues and give a proper direction. view
• 18 Feb 2009 in National Assembly: I appreciate the fact that when we were in Mombasa, the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade, and that of Agriculture, Lands and Natural Resources gave us very valuable contributions. We intend to bring to this House a Report for discussion by Members of Parliament for decision making. view
• 18 Feb 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I did say, in response to part "a" of the Question, that we negotiated to have a duty free and quota free access to that market. It is true that if we open our market to the European market, in terms of our national products, we stand to lose in terms of competitiveness, because of the cost of production, which is quite high in this country. It is this input that we seek from hon. Members as we engage them to be able to contribute and make necessary adjustments, so that before we sign the ... view