Kenya has secured duty-free access for almost all of its exports to China under a preliminary deal, its trade minister said on Thursday, as Nairobi seeks to offset the impact of the increase American customs duties.
The agreement between Kenya and China aims to diversify the East African country's markets and "reduce trade imbalances", Commerce Minister Lee Kinyanjui said in a statement.
The deal will allow 98.2% of Kenyan goods to enter China without import duties, including eliminating tariffs on its essential agricultural exports, Kinyanjui said.
The agreement must still be ratified by Parliament, his office told AFP.
Many African countries are increasingly turning to China and other trading partners since US President Donald Trump increased tariffs on products imported from around the world last year.
The Trump administration imposed Kenya's lowest tariff increase of 10%, but the country was also hit by the September expiration of the African and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a long-standing agreement that granted duty-free access to the U.S. market for cars, clothing and other items from 32 African countries.
U.S. lawmakers approved a three-year extension of AGOA late this week, but it still needs to be approved by the Senate and signed into law.
Last year, US Senator James Risch called for an investigation into trade relations between Kenya and Beijing, which has invested heavily in the country's infrastructure.
Kenyan media reported that pressure from the United States had delayed the deal with China, but Senior Foreign Secretary Korir Sing'oei rejected the allegations this week, calling them "completely unfounded".
"We see no contradiction between entering into a market access agreement with China on the one hand, and our strong push for the renewal of AGOA on the other", Sing'oei said on X.
On Tuesday, Republican Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee Jason Smith called for the AGOA deal to be urgently finalized, warning that Beijing had made huge investments to "monopolize" the market.
