Kenya risks suspension from Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) over importation and the exportation of sugar.
According to COMESA, Kenya disregarded some of the rules set up by the trading bloc.
Kenya is accused of ignoring the body’s regulation on the importation of sugar, that turned out to be counterfeit.
According to the East African, the importation was done without the approval from COMESA. Under COMESA’s rule, any sugar imports from non-member states attract a common external tariff (CET) of 25 percent.
However, Kenya passed a domestic law allowing the importation of duty-free sugar. At the same time, the Kenya Revenue Authority is said to have blocked sugar from COMESA member states while allowing the importation of duty-free sugar.
“Kenya should have informed other member states before passing the law on to import sugar from the outside world, failure to do this caused challenges forcing the secretariat to step in,” said Francis Mangeni, Director in Charge of Trade and Customs at the COMESA Secretariat.
Suspension from the bloc would a huge blow as the members consume about 12 percent of Kenya’s total exports.