Kenya creates ministerial committee to implement WTO rules

Kenya has created a ministerial committee of 52 state agencies to implement the World Trade Organization (WTO) Bali treaty on easing barriers at seaports and airports signed in November 2015, a top trade official said late on Friday.

Chris Kiptoo, Principal Secretary at the Kenyan Industry, Trade and Cooperatives Ministry, said Kenya was among the 63 countries which ratified the Trade Facilitation Agreement, a WTO agreement aiming at easing the barriers to trade by removing hurdles constantly faced by investors and traders.

"We have a committee of 52 Heads of the State agencies including the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Kentrade -- a newly formed state company tasked to work towards the harmonization of trade," Kiptoo told Xinhua.

"The trade ministry is working towards making the committee a formal state body through a ministerial gazette notice, which would give it the legal powers to start work," he said.

The Kenya Trade Network Agency (KenTrade), a state agency within the ministry of finance, is mandated to facilitate cross-border trade as part of the implementation of the Bali agreement.

Kenyan officials say there is an urgent need to implement new measures to bolster regional trade.

Kiptoo said Kenya urgently needs to close a huge trade deficit, caused by the rise in import volumes, currently valued at 10 billion U.S. dollars against the export volumes, currently valued at 6 billion dollars.

"We need an exports strategy which we hope to launch very soon. This policy is based on an international trade policy which will be approved by the Cabinet. The Council of Governors is currently being consulted on this. Once this is done, we shall roll out the trade remedies bill, which aims to stop export dumping," Kiptoo said.

Speaking after opening a regional meeting of tax experts from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the trade ministry official said the aim of the government is to consolidate the operations of all the agencies tasked with approving exports and imports into a single unit.

"We did not require a lot of support to implement the WTO rules on trade facilitation. There are countries being facilitated to simplify them. These rules deal with facilitation of traders at the border crossing points," Kiptoo explained.

Kenya and other COMESA countries are holding talks in Nairobi on how to ease regional trade.

The officials drawn from customs departments are discussing the rules that should be followed in the export and import of goods traded regionally and internationally within the COMESA region.

Source : XINHUA