DAVID MAGERIA | Nairobi | Thursday 10.30am.
EGYPT insisted it would not lift a newly introduced duty on Kenyan tea until Kenya applied preferential regional tariffs to all Egyptian exports.
Egypt imposed higher duties on Kenya’s tea last week in the latest eruption of a trade dispute between the two countries.
The move followed Nairobi’s decision to remove most goods that Egypt exports to Kenya from a list that attracts preferential duties under the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), of which both countries are members.
The Egyptian Ambassador to Kenya, Refaat El-Ansary, said if Kenya gave 52 Egyptian commodities preferential treatment under COMESA, his government would do the same for Kenya’s tea.
”We should stop putting each other in negative lists and we should be in positive mood to go ahead and work in cooperation,” he told a news conference in Nairobi.
”We should abide and (be) committed by COMESA rules and regulations and COMESA articles of agreements,” he added. He hoped the duties would be lifted simultaneously.
Egypt is the third largest importer of Kenya’s tea after Britain and Pakistan. The ambassador said the new duty being charged by Egypt on Kenyan tea was ”about 35 percent” instead of the three percent COMESA rate.
Although Kenya has issued a notice removing the extra duty payable on Egyptian rice and readmitting it to the list of products accorded COMESA tariffs, it is still excluding some of Egypt’s other exports from the terms of the COMESA agreement. – Reuters