President Uhuru Kenyatta landed in China on Saturday morning but this time not with his favorite pen to sign more Chinese loans, or at least loans are not part of his itinerary.
Uhuru is leading a delegation of Kenyan traders to the China International Import Expo (CIIE), during which a deal on horticultural exports will be signed.
The president arrived in China on Saturday morning (Kenyan time), for the expo that kicked off on Friday to Tuesday.
The new trade pact is expected to open up the Chinese market to over 40 per cent of the country’s fresh produce including avocadoes, cashew nuts, and mangoes.
In addition to the Memorandum of Understanding, the Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary said, officials said, Kenya and China will establish a working group on trade tariffs in a bid to promote trade between the two nations.
— Amb. Monica Juma (@Diplomacy_Kenya) November 3, 2018
In an interview with a local radio station, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma said Kenya had identified the new trade pact as vital to attaining a fair balance of trade.
“We are keen on addressing the existing trade imbalance and that is why we want to open up the Chinese market to our goods and services,” CS Juma said during the October 23 interview when she sat down with this writer.
According to the CS, Kenya is among five nations set to exhibit at the Import Expo running from November 5-10.The new pact on Kenya’s horticulture will also allow the exportation of Kenyan stevia, a sweetener grown in the Rift Valley.
Although it is not clear whether President Kenyatta will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the two leaders may be compelled to discuss an emerging tiff between the two nations after Kenya’s State Department for Fisheries, Aquaculture and The Blue Economy announced its intent to bar Chinese fish imports from January 1, 2019.
In a letter dated October 24, Acting Director-General of the Kenya Fisheries Service Susan Imande explicitly banned the importation of Oreochromis niloticus Tilapia which goes for about Sh 250 per kilogram in the local market compared to Kenya’s Tilapia selling at Sh400 per kilogram.
Imande’s move came barely a week after President Kenyatta instructed Kenyan officials to do anything within their power to protect local traders from an influx of cheap imported Chinese fish.
“How can we be buying fish from China? Even if the Finance Bill has already been adopted you can think outside the box and say the fish is spoilt when it arrives at the port of entry,” Kenyatta said on October 16 a round-table with proprietors of Small and Medium Enterprises at Strathmore University in Nairobi.
“There’re many ways the government can work to ensure its people benefit if we really intent on serving our people,” he added.
Acting Chinese Ambassador Li Xuhang had on October 30 described the intended ban of fish from his country as unfair saying it was tantamount to a “trade war.”
He had urged for adherence to trade pacts between the two countries to avoid unfair trade policies.