Kenya: Small Scale Farmers Forum opposes ongoing trade negotiations with America

Kenya’s ongoing trade negotiations with the United States for a Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP) are facing strong opposition from the Kenya Small Scale Farmers Forum. The next round of negotiations is set to take place in Nairobi from Monday 17th April 2023. The forum is particularly concerned about the lack of stakeholder consultations to determine what should go into the final agreement, as well as what should be kept out of the negotiations.

The lack of consultation with Kenyan stakeholders is in sharp contrast to the extensive comments that American stakeholders have given to the USTR. This raises concerns about the possible impacts of the STIP, especially with regards to the agricultural chapter being opened for negotiations. Kenya’s agricultural sector is likely to be significantly impacted by an agreement between a developing country like Kenya and one of the top agricultural exporters in the world.

The forum has cited studies on the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on the agricultural sector in Mexico, which resulted in the displacement of two million farmers. NAFTA destroyed Mexico’s agricultural sector, flooded the country with cheap agricultural imports, and failed to curb farm subsidies in the US and Canada, leading to an uneven playing field that left poor farmers in poorer countries worse off while large agribusinesses reaped the benefits of agricultural trade liberalization.

Given these concerns, the forum has recommended that Kenya assesses the cost of agricultural trade liberalization for Kenya and Kenyan farmers before negotiating the chapter. There needs to be a comprehensive assessment of the effect of agricultural trade liberalization, including the likely impact of US agricultural subsidies on the Kenyan agricultural sector. The forum also notes that the Kenyan government has legalized Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), which it finds very troublesome.

The lack of stakeholder consultations with Kenyan farmers and other stakeholders has left many feeling left out of the negotiations, and without a voice to advocate for their interests. The forum has highlighted the need for the government to conduct sufficient public participation to enable farmers to make informed decisions. Public participation needs to be conducted in a place that is accessible to small scale farmers and done in a language understood by farmers. The failure to translate the documents to Kiswahili is a glaring mistake as most farmers don’t understand English.

The government has also not shared with farmers or any other stakeholders the negotiating texts proposed by either Kenya or the US. The forum does not understand why the texts cannot be shared, given that the negotiations carried out under the East African Community/European Union (EAC/EU) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) under the Kenya Post-Lomé Trade Program (KEPLOTRADE) actually had civil society and farmers accessing negotiations texts and commenting on them as negotiations progressed.

There is a need to demystify the issues at play to enable farmers to understand what is at stake. The KEPLOTRADE Program had capacity-building sessions to enable stakeholders to understand how to engage on the issues. Expecting the KESSFF to engage robustly on the issues without understanding the nuanced policy issues at play is tantamount to leaving small scale farmers to their own devices in a David and Goliath setting with the American Government!

The Kenya Small Scale Farmers Forum is not only concerned about the ongoing Kenya-US STIP negotiations but also has issues with two other trade agreements. The forum is concerned about the European Union/East African Community (EAC/EU) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) chapter on Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD), which was done in secret without any stakeholder consultation and engagement. The concluded agreement is supposed to be tabled in Parliament for ratification, but the parliamentary process will involve public participation, which is now deemed useless as the agreement has already been concluded.

Source: Norvanreports