NPPC Wants Kenya to Eliminate Restrictions on U.S. Pork
With a population nearing 50 million, a growing middle class and fairly strong tourism-driven demand from its hotel, restaurant and institutional food service sectors, Kenya has the potential to be a significant export market for U.S. pork products. Unfortunately, it currently has tariff and non-tariff barriers that limit U.S. pork imports.
The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released text summaries proposed by the U.S. during the first round of the U.S.-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP) negotiations held last month in Nairobi, Kenya, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) rep0rted in Capital Update.
The initiative’s goal is to “increase investment; promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth; benefit workers, consumers and businesses; and support African regional economic integration.”
The STIP’s draft text on agriculture seeks to increase transparency and regulatory certainty for exporters and importers and includes provisions on food safety, plant health and animal health protection. It also covers science-based decision-making to protect human, plant and animal life and health; improve processes and promote cooperation on regulatory and administrative requirements; and facilitate agricultural trade, with provisions related to import licensing, certification requirements and equivalency to ensure that requirements for importation are clearly communicated to agricultural producers.
"NPPC supports the talks between the U.S. and Kenya and hopes negotiations will further open the African nation’s market to U.S. pork. In comments submitted to USTR last year following the announcement of the STIP, NPPC urged U.S. trade negotiators to push Kenya to eliminate its unjustified restrictions on U.S. pork imports," NPPC said in a release. "Those include onerous testing and inspection requirements, non-science-based sanitary and phytosanitary barriers and failure to recognize the equivalence of U.S. pork production practices and the U.S. food safety inspection and approval system for pork slaughter, processing and storage plants."
