US reassures commercial ties with Kenya amid hush on trade pact

Trade as a subject however took a backseat when President Uhuru Kenyatta met his US counterpart Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday.

Even so, notes from a background press call by senior US administration officials on President Biden’s Meeting with President Kenyatta assured the United States was still weighing its options on the means to accelerate trade ties and economic growth for Kenya.

“We will be talking about ways in which we can accelerate economic growth in Kenya building off the work that has already been done by both our trade negotiations teams,” an officer decoded only as a Senior Administration Official told journalists on Thursday.

“Both the US and Kenyan Trade Ministers are working closely on the trade relationship and we can anticipate that our US Trade Representative Ambassador (Katherine) Tai will continue to work with her Kenyan colleagues on the best path forward.

Nevertheless, future trade relations between Kenya and the US may lie outside an FTA as the Biden administration looks to innovate its foreign trade policy.

“I’m sure you are aware of the Build Back Better World or B3W initiative that President Biden announced at the G7 summit. We are thinking about how we approach foreign trade and balancing that with our domestic economic concerns but we are committed to working with our Kenyan partners to strengthening our economic relationship,” added the administration official.

Kenya had begun negotiating its first bilateral trade deal with the US under the then administration of Donald Trump with the hope of sealing the deal by 2022.

Even so, the new US administration has been slow to continue with the discussions and has been undertaking a forensic review of all deals reached during Trump’s days in office including Kenya’s FTA.

Both US and Kenyan officials are yet to timelines on the continuation of FTA discussions.

During the meeting between the pair’s presidents, the acceleration of economic prosperity through climate smart solutions and the use of renewable energy resources features according to notes shared by the White House.