Africa & Middle East
Bilateral deal-making involving governments of Africa and the Middle East.
photo: World Bank/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The East African Community is optimistic that the US President elect Joe Biden will revive the negotiations and implementations of the EAC-US Trade and Investment Partnership.
In this third episode of the US Kenya FTA series, we are joined by Dr. Isaac Rutenberg the Director of CIPIT, and Lori Wallach, Head Director and Founder of Global Trade Watch.
The two countries aim to increase the volume of trade exchange and diversify it by signing a free trade agreement.
The Kenyan Trade Cabinet received a 20,000–strong petition calling on her to take a strong stand against any influence by the American Chemistry Council, which Greenpeace said is keen to secure market for the US plastic industry.
The talks have moved into the second round. Kenya has prepared text for 13 chapters.
Côte d’Ivoire has hastily signed an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the UK, which is modelled on the interim EPA the country signed with the European Union.
In the SACUM-UK EPA, commitments on tariffs for both the UK and SACUM have been transitioned from the SADC-EU EPA without changes.
So-called “trade agreements” such as the US-Kenya trade deal have nothing to do with trade. But rather they impose new limits on government regulatory authority.
Kenya’s plans to tax digital services could hit a brick wall following its negotiations for a free trade deal with the US.
Meetings called to negotiate a collective trade agreement between the EAC and the United Kingdom have failed to make any substantive progress.
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African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) legal texts and policy documents
Tralac’s page on the African Continental Free Trade Area -
SEATINI Uganda
The Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) is a regional non-governmental organization founded in 1996 soon after the WTO Singapore Ministerial Conference — mainly focusing on WTO, but also bilateral and regional trade negotiations in Africa. -
SEATINI Zimbabwe
The Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) is an African initiative to strengthen Africa’s capacity to take a more effective part in the emerging global trading system and to better manage the process of globalization.
bilaterals.org team, Jan 2021