African businesses snub regional trade deals for Quad countries
L-R: Kenyan Trade CS Moses Kuria, European Investment Bank Vice-President Thomas (div)stros, EU Ambassador to Kenya Henriette Geiger with Kenyan President William Ruto and French Trade Minister Olivier Becht during the EU-Kenya Business Forum on February 21, 2023. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NMG
Business and Technology Reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
Nation Media Group
Businesses in the region are making the most of preferential trade agreements with the West, snubbing local free trade treaties in spite of a rising push for more intraregional business. A new study shows that African traders are taking advantage of import duty waivers by the US, Canada, EU and Japan (collectively referred to as the Quad countries) under various preferential trade agreements (PTAs), resulting in large volumes of exports to the West.
On the contrary, the businesses are not fully utilising similar advantages under local regional economic communities (RECs), according to findings by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).
