•  Kenya to restart U.S. free trade talks this week

• Talks resume as AGOA nears September 30 expiration

• Kenya faces 10% U.S. tariffs without new deal

Kenya plans to resume negotiations with the United States on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA), a deal first initiated under President Donald Trump's administration before being suspended by his successor, Joe Biden. The announcement was reported by the media outlet The East African on Saturday, citing Kenyan Trade Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui.

Kinyanjui revealed he would lead a Kenyan delegation to Washington D.C. this week, August 11-17, to discuss a potential restart of the talks with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and other senior officials.

"Trump started the FTA, that was his dream," Kinyanjui  said. "But after he left office, the thinking of the people who he left changed. Now that he has come back, there have been such huge changes that there is no time now to sit back and agree on some of the things. [...] We want to have a better trading platform with the US, and we have a huge plan around it. Both the US and Kenya are on the same page."

The original free-trade talks between Nairobi and Washington began in 2020 under the Trump administration. These negotiations were later suspended by the Biden administration, which instead launched discussions on a "Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP)" with Kenya. The STIP's objectives were focused on reducing non-tariff barriers and lowering costs to boost the competitiveness of American businesses in the Kenyan market.

The push to resume free-trade negotiations comes as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is set to expire on September 30. AGOA is a trade preference program that allows sub-Saharan African countries to export goods to the U.S. without paying duties.

With the expiration of AGOA, which the Trump administration is not expected to renew, a 10% tariff will be applied to all of Kenya's trade with the United States. According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the value of exports from East Africa's largest economy to the U.S. reached $737.3 million in 2024.

Walid Kéfi