By BUSINESS DAILY

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The US is non-committal about when negotiations for a free trade deal with Kenya will be concluded despite Nairobi earlier saying the talks would be finalised by December.

The United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai, who concluded her three-day tour in Nairobi on Wednesday, indicated the US negotiators do not have a deadline for concluding talks or signing the proposed US-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (Stip).

“In terms of signature and when will we conclude, our focus right now is on substance as opposed to setting an actual deadline,” Ms Tai said in a media briefing in Nairobi.

“There’s a strong motivation on both sides to continue to build trade and economic relationships through these Stip discussions. So, I am very encouraged with the engagement that we have had here, and we will see how quickly we can move things forward.”

The proposed trade deal, which does not have clauses on tariffs, is expected to shield Kenya in the event that the US Congress chooses not to renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), which gives countries in the sub-Saharan Africa duty- and quota-free access to the American market, when it expires in 2025.

Kenya’s Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria had in March said he expected the negotiators to finalise talks in December to pave the way for the signing of the deal by April 2024.

Read: Kenya expects trade deal with US in a year

The Trade Ministry’s expectations to finalise the talks by December were affirmed in a report by the National Assembly Committee on Trade, Industrialisation and Cooperatives in June.

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