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Kenya to up shares in international market
The People Daily, October 16, 2008

KENYA stands to increase its share by a substantial percentage in the international market once the national trade Policy currently under formulation is completed.

Senior assistant director of external trade E.B. Manyara yesterday assured that the process of formulating a new Policy is progressing well and the first trade policy document is expected to be rolled out by, early next year.

Manyara explained that once completed, the strategy will guide the country in its participations in the international trade forums.

He said the country has never had a dear and well-structured trade Policy document since independence and was only participating and making Commitments to international trade rules using knowledge from various documents that has contributed to facilitation of trade.

The trade policies are contained in various Government documents, a scenario that makes it cumbersome to interpret them and also difficult to be understood by the outside World.

"This in turn has had an adverse effect on investment. Every effort has now been made and the first trade policy document is expected to be rolled out by early next year," he said.

He made the remarks while presenting a paper on trade policy making process in Kenya to Various local and international trade stakeholders in a Nairobi hotel who were attending trade forum. CUTS International, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), which is carrying out a study, based on Fostering Equity and Accountability in the Trading System (FEATS) project, had organised the forum.

The study is expected to access how trade Policy making is carried out in Africa with five developing countries being the pilot projects - Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia.

Manyara confirmed that the Ministry of Trade and other concerned stakeholders will carry out wide consultations and seek opinions from countries that have so far formulated their trade Policies.

"We are going to consult South Africa and Egypt and other countries from Asia So. That we can formulate a comprehensive trade Policy with a view to providing sanity in the trade arena locally and internationally, " he said.

The director Pointed out that once the Policies enacted it will enable Kenya to make strong Commitments in the international markets, adding it will be an impetus to the country trade negotiations trend.

The CUTS international Geneva resource centre director Atul Kaushik said the project to be carried out in five countries, has three aspects research; advocacy and networking adding the study seeks to generating a more coherent and pro-trade for development voice in the formulation and implementation of trade and development Policy at both the national and International levels.