info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
Image from The East African
Kenya has once again written to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) seeking protection against importation of cheap sugar from the region.
The move comes just months after Kenya ratified a continental free trade area agreement that allows free movement of goods between African States and in the wake of a domestic sugar crisis caused by importation of large amounts of duty-free sugar from non-Comesa member states.
Kenya imported 981,000 tonnes of sugar between May and December last year following the opening of the duty-free window to bridge the local deficit.
It has now emerged that a technical team from the Sugar Directorate on Wednesday submitted to Comesa a report on the status of Kenya’s sugar industry seeking extension of the safeguards that cap the amount of sugar that member states can sell to the country.
The protection measures, which Nairobi has sought and got for the past 10 years, are meant to protect the country’s nascent sugar millers from cheap imports.
Kenya, having exhausted the allowable period for the safeguards in 2012, was given two more years in 2016 which ended in February 2018, prompting the current request for more time at the ongoing Comesa meeting in Lusaka, Zambia.
