EU-Kenya trade pact is the ‘most ambitious’ on climate and labour rights

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The EU signed an Economic Partnership Agreement with Kenya on Monday (18 December), including significant social and climate commitments, with the European Commission describing the deal as the “most ambitious with an African country”.

In a statement, the EU executive said the agreement with Nairobi was “the most ambitious trade deal ever signed by the EU with a developing country when it comes to sustainability provisions such as climate and environmental protection, labour rights and gender equality”.

The pact will open up the EU market to Kenyan products and will also incentivise EU investment in Kenya.

EU-Kenya trade was worth €3.3 billion in 2022 – an increase of 27% compared to 2018.

The Commission statement added that Kenya had played “a pioneering role in driving sustainability efforts on the African continent and is a reliable ally in the fight against climate change”.

The agreement “includes the strongest social and climate commitments of any EU trade deal with an African country, said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Since his election in August 2022, Kenya’s President William Ruto has sought to cultivate political and economic ties with Brussels, positioning his government as one of the bloc’s main allies in sub-Saharan Africa.

Ruto has pushed for Kenya to have access to Europe’s carbon credit system to encourage greater investment in its renewable energy sector.

Ahead of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai earlier this month, Ruto and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to lead a joint initiative looking at ways to finance climate adaption, including a global carbon price and carbon import levy modelled on the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

During a two-day visit to Kenya last year, meanwhile, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said the EU would “no longer be a donor but a trading partner” with Kenya.

‘We are no longer the donor of development aid. We are a strategic partner,’ Borrell added.

A ‘strategic dialogue’ between the EU and Kenya, which is separate to the EPA, is designed to step up co-operation on peace and security in the East African region, fighting poverty through trade and investment, environmental conservation, climate change, defending democracy and the rule of law, and human rights.

The EU has sought to negotiate EPAs with most of Africa’s regional blocs over the past twenty years but has only concluded deals with a handful of countries.

A number of African leaders, business groups, and civil society have complained that the EPAs offer little to developing countries, who already enjoy preferential trade access, and do not encourage the development of African industry and intra-Africa trade.

Much of the EPA between the EU and Kenya was originally negotiated with the eight-member East African Community (EAC) and will be open for other EAC countries to join.

However, other leading countries in the EAC, including Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania, have said they will not join the EPA.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]