Kenya negotiating trade deal with U.S. in wake of Trump tariffs: CS Kinyanjui

Kenya is brokering a trade agreement with the United States following President Donald Trump’s recent 10 percent tariff on Nairobi's exports, Trade Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui said on Monday.

On April 2, Trump announced sweeping ‘reciprocal tariffs’ on all imports to America. The White House said Kenya charges the U.S. a 10 per cent tariff, including currency manipulation and trade barriers.

While Trump has since paused the tariffs on all countries except China, Kinyanjui said it has provided an opportunity for countries “to put their case” before the U.S. government.

“Kenya will be appealing this 10 percent trade tariff, and we have drafted the rationale for that,” the minister told Citizen TV’s Monday Report program.

The reciprocal impositions will affect Kenya’s total goods trade with the world’s largest economy; Nairobi exported goods worth $737.3 million (Ksh.95.3 billion) to Washington in 2024, per the U.S. Trade Representative’s office.

Kinyanjui said Nairobi sent a delegation to Washington last week over the matter, adding that Kenya also eyes a free-trade agreement with the U.S. as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) nears expiry this September.

Since May 2000, Kenya has been exempted from tariffs when exporting to the U.S. under AGOA.

“We’re likely to be the second country to have a direct FTA with U.S. after Morocco,” said the CS, referring to the Morocco Free Trade Agreement (MAFTA) between the U.S. and the North African country, which entered into force in January 2006.

Similarly, the minister said they are eyeing more markets for Kenyan goods to avoid overdependence on the U.S.

“This is a moment of global turbulence, not a Kenya issue… We have to go through the storm and adjust accordingly,” Kinyanjui said.