Mwanzi1
JF-Expert Member
- Sep 19, 2016
- 6,000
- 4,589
Haya mambo nimeyasema humu JF lakini wakenya mliona kama ndoto. Sasa mnaaza kuamka na kujitambua. $ 0.5 billion is at stake.
If China is stealing American jobs as US President Donald Trump likes to put it, then Kenya is an accomplice.
Chinese and Indian firms have exploited Kenya's duty-free Export Processing Zones (EPZ) to manufacture garments and export to the United States through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).
Agoa is a US trade legislation which enhances market access to the US for 'needy' sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries that meet a set of conditions, including improving rule of law, human rights and respect for core labour standards. In real sense, Africans are supposed to benefit more from the pact than Americans. According to Dr Scholastica Odhiambo, a lecturer at Maseno University, this is one of US' big brother, altruistic attitude done primarily to help poor African countries industrialise.
Kenya is one of the 39 Sub-Saharan African countries that have benefited from this Act, which former Us President Barack Obama extended to 2025. The World Bank in one of its reports, Kenya Apparel & Textile Industry, noted that at Sh8.3 trillion, the US is the biggest apparel market.
Unfortunately, companies benefiting from this magnanimous legislation are not from poor African countries - at least not in Kenya. Beneficiaries of this arrangement are mainly from the very countries Mr Trump has blamed for stealing American jobs. Of the Sh8.3 trillion, Kenya only captured 0.38 per cent, an insignificant fraction compared to China's 38 per cent.
According to the Economic Survey 2016, export of apparel under Agoa increased by 14.4 per cent to Sh34.6 billion in 2015. Andrew Franklin, a US citizen who has spent most of his adult life in Kenya, believes Kenya has knowingly or unknowingly permitted China, India and Pakistan to benefit from Agoa at the expense of locals, thus defeating the very objective of the legislation.
"The manner in which the 17-year old Agoa has been implemented in Kenya has sent jobs to China, India and Pakistan from which cotton is sourced as are buttons, zippers, thread which is then assembled in mainly foreign owned textile companies operating in the EPZs," says Franklin noting that there have been no benefits to Kenya "beyond 40,000 semi-skilled workers".
More on the link below
Why China and India benefit more from Agoa than Kenya
If China is stealing American jobs as US President Donald Trump likes to put it, then Kenya is an accomplice.
Chinese and Indian firms have exploited Kenya's duty-free Export Processing Zones (EPZ) to manufacture garments and export to the United States through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).
Agoa is a US trade legislation which enhances market access to the US for 'needy' sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries that meet a set of conditions, including improving rule of law, human rights and respect for core labour standards. In real sense, Africans are supposed to benefit more from the pact than Americans. According to Dr Scholastica Odhiambo, a lecturer at Maseno University, this is one of US' big brother, altruistic attitude done primarily to help poor African countries industrialise.
Kenya is one of the 39 Sub-Saharan African countries that have benefited from this Act, which former Us President Barack Obama extended to 2025. The World Bank in one of its reports, Kenya Apparel & Textile Industry, noted that at Sh8.3 trillion, the US is the biggest apparel market.
Unfortunately, companies benefiting from this magnanimous legislation are not from poor African countries - at least not in Kenya. Beneficiaries of this arrangement are mainly from the very countries Mr Trump has blamed for stealing American jobs. Of the Sh8.3 trillion, Kenya only captured 0.38 per cent, an insignificant fraction compared to China's 38 per cent.
According to the Economic Survey 2016, export of apparel under Agoa increased by 14.4 per cent to Sh34.6 billion in 2015. Andrew Franklin, a US citizen who has spent most of his adult life in Kenya, believes Kenya has knowingly or unknowingly permitted China, India and Pakistan to benefit from Agoa at the expense of locals, thus defeating the very objective of the legislation.
"The manner in which the 17-year old Agoa has been implemented in Kenya has sent jobs to China, India and Pakistan from which cotton is sourced as are buttons, zippers, thread which is then assembled in mainly foreign owned textile companies operating in the EPZs," says Franklin noting that there have been no benefits to Kenya "beyond 40,000 semi-skilled workers".
More on the link below
Why China and India benefit more from Agoa than Kenya
