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"Some Kenyans feel their country was blackmailed into signing the EPA"

Kenya's trade with the EU

 Talks on a European Partnership Agreement between the 28-nation European Union (EU) and the East African Community (EAC) - Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda - lasted ten long years.

A deal was reached in October 2014 and four EAC countries committed themselves to gradually opening up their markets to EU exports in return for continued exemption from EU customs duty.

Initially, Kenya refused to sign the deal. There was strong resistance to the EPA in Kenya. The worry was the Kenyan horticulture - the cultivation of fruit, vegetables and nuts - would be unable to compete with subsidized produce from the EU.

When Kenya refused to sign the EPA, the EU flexed its muscles and imposed duties of between eight and a half and 30 percent on Kenyan cut flowers - one of the country's major exports - as well as on Kenyan coffee, tea and tinned pineapple.

It was blackmail as some Kenyans observed bitterly. But that did not lessen the impact. A few weeks later the Kenyan government signed the EPA. Many have criticized the EU's heavy-handed tactics, including the German government's Africa Commissioner, Günter Nooke, who suggested that it was counter-productive.

"We transfer a lot of taxpayers' money to Africa in the shape of development programs. One shouldn't set out to demolish with trade talks that which we in the development ministry are trying to help create," he said in an apparent reference to sustained economic growth in Kenya.

Economists at the United Nations have also voiced criticism of the EPA, saying it is more of a threat than an opportunity for the East Africans.

Click here to read the complete article at www.dw.de.
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