Sugar lands Kenya in trouble
News & Trends •
read more18 kenya is facing the risks of suspension from the common market for eastern and southern africa comesa after disregarding its rules on importation of sugar1 the controversial importation of an unknown quantity of sugar which has raised a storm in kenya with claims of the commodity being contaminated was done without the approval of comesa1 under the rules of the 19-member trading bloc any sugar imports from outside comesa attract a common external tariff cet of 25 per cent1 goods qualify for preferential tariff treatment only if they originate in the member states and are traded within the bloc1 kenyas move has not been well received and could hurt its trade relations with other member states1 ironically the country enjoys a comesa safeguard measure which limits the amount of sugar that can be imported duty-free from the blocs members. this special consideration was made in 2002 to give the country time to make its sugar production competitive as it was feared imports from the bloc would kill local manufacturing1 the safeguard which restricts duty-free sugar imports from the comesa member countries to 350000 metric tonnes per year expires in february 20191 the government is therefore keen on an extension after failing to meet key conditions including privatisation of its ailing state-owned millers1 the drama surrounding kenyas sugar imports is dragging as regional players kick1 suspension from the bloc would deal the country a heavy blow as the rest of the members consume about 12 per cent of kenyas total exports including tea coffee and horticulture articles of apparel and clothing accessories and iron and steel1 comesa rules allow member countries to import goods from non-member states on condition that the goods attract duty. however it is understood that kenya unilaterally passed a domestic law to allow the importation of sugar duty-free1 kenya should have told other comesa countries before passing a law to import sugar from the rest of the world because failure to do this caused challenges and we had to step in as the secretariat to explain their action1 the way this law was communicated was not effective said francis mangeni director in charge of trade and customs at the comesa secretariat1 while allowing importation of duty-free sugar opened the door for all countries to sell sugar to kenyas importers the kenya revenue authority is said to have blocked sugar from some comesa member countries such as mauritius prompting the intervention of the secretariat1 it is alleged that kenya has also denied mauritius a licence to export sugar to the country pending the conclusion of investigation into adulterated sugar in the local market1 kenya is understood to have requested a discussion of its sugar issues during the 20th comesa heads of state and governments summit scheduled to take place from july 9 to july 19 2018 in lusaka zambia1 with its outright disregard of comesa rules kenya now risks being denied more time to limit the amount of cheap and duty-free sugar brought into the country to protect its ailing sugar sector1