The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa has allowed Kenya to continue imposing high duties on wheat flour imports from Egypt and Mauritius, the two main low-cost producers of the commodity in the trading bloc. Under the arrangement, Kenya may impose a 60 per cent duty on the imports in addition to other taxes.
Kenya could continue with the run until the end of 2008, after which they will be reviewed by the trading bloc’s Trade and Customs committee, its main policy-making body on trade issues.
Last year, Kenya requested a review of its sugar sector by the secretariat to determine whether the industry was competitive enough to allow duty-free sugar imports from COMESA. Consequently, the COMESA Secretariat commissioned a study to assess the competitiveness of the sugar industry in Kenya.
On the import side, Sudan registered the largest market share of 17 per cent followed by Uganda at 12 per cent.
Intra COMESA trade has continued to experience robust growth with agricultural commodities such as tea, tobacco, sugar, rice, coffee, cotton and wheat topping the tables.
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