Govt. wary of new global trade moves

Much of United States President Donald Trump’s focus during the campaigns centered on changing the way America engages in global trade.

For President Trump, it was time to focus on ‘America first’, an endearing rallying call that seemingly propelled him to the presidency of the world’s largest economy.

On Monday, he set out on this agenda by pulling the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) , making good on a pledge to scrap a deal he denounced as a “job killer” and wasn’t beneficial to US interests.

“Great thing for the American worker what we just did,” he said.

And with the stroke of a pen, global trade was ushered into a new era.

Kenya views the move with uncertainty with plans to continuously engage partners to ensure trade interest are aligned.

Trade and Industrialization Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed said international trade has become a topical issue with countries now assessing the value of their trade deals and whether it was beneficial.

“There is a lot of fear that the world now is becoming more anti global, getting more protectionist and what that does is that countries like ours which have very small domestic markets and traditionally dependent on international export markets like the US and Europe, could potentially be affected by this,” Mr Mohamed said.

He made the remarks while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week.

While withdrawal from the TPP deal may have sent shock waves, Kenya is looking at the move closely given its engagement with the US through the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act.

Foreign Affairs Principle Secretary Amb Monica Juma said Kenya remains optimistic of a growing relationship with the U.S government adding the interests between the two countries have not ended with the previous regimes.

“We will be waiting to see the strategy in Africa, and its detail, there are a number of things that we expect to see there. There is a commitment on AGOA that we expect to that to continue because it has been renewed. We expect some discussion to strengthen the US, East Africa framework. I actually see no reason for nervousness,” Amb Juma told Citizen Digital.

Kenya is the United States 4th largest trading partner in sub Saharan Africa with textiles and apparel accounting for over 80 percent of Kenya’s exports to the US under the AGOA program.

Additional reporting by Mumbi Warui

Tags:

kenya World Economic Forum Donald Trump Trade Adan Mohamed United States Trans-Pacific Partnership America first trade policies TPP global trade Africa Growth and Opportunities Act foreign affairs job killer monica juma national interests trade partners

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