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Trade, Investments and Industry Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria on Thursday held virtual talks with United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
The two discussed ways to augment bilateral trade relations between the two countries in line with the Kenya-US Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership signed on July 14th.
"CS Kuria and Tai discussed opportunities to engage in the near future to pursue a strong working relationship that advances our common goals, including expanding bilateral trade with benefits that are broadly shared, inclusion of women, youth and others in trade, supporting Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, as well as advancing the African continental trade integration," the Trade Ministry said in a press release.
The two leaders agreed to meet in person on the sidelines of the United States-Africa Leaders’ Summit slated for December in Washington, D.C.
Tai also congratulated Kuria for his recent appointment to the Trade docket.
Kenya and the US have been in negotiations for a fully-fledged free trade agreement (FTA) that will serve as a benchmark for future trade engagements between the US and other African countries.
In July, Kenya and the US agreed on 10 key areas of collaboration including agriculture, anti-corruption, digital economy, environment, climate change, transparency, good regulatory practices, MSMEs, workers’ rights and youth and women participation.
Kenya is keen to ink a trade deal with the US ahead of the 2025 expiry of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) program, which gives Kenya and 40 other sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to the US market for over 6,000 products.