Washington – Kenya’s president said on Wednesday
that African nations should be free to cooperate with both the United States
and China, warning that foreign powers were exacerbating the continent’s
divisions.
President Uhuru Kenyatta was speaking on a visit to
Washington, where speculation has built that the United States will seek to
negotiate a free-trade agreement with Kenya, in what would be a first with an
African nation.
On the eve of his talks with President Donald
Trump, Kenyatta said he was “very concerned” about a return to the
Cold War era when Africans had to choose between the United States and the
Soviet Union.
“Western countries, and their counterparts in
Asia and the Middle East, are returned to competition over Africa, in some
cases weaponising divisions, pursuing proxy actions and behaving like Africa is
for the taking.
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“Well, I want to tell you it is not,”
Kenyatta said at the Atlantic Council think tank.
China has been funding billions of dollars worth of
infrastructure around the world, including a modern new rail-line between
Nairobi and the port of Mombasa, as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.
The United States has been increasingly vocal in
urging developing nations to be wary, warning that they can be saddled with unpayable
debts to Beijing for projects built largely with Chinese labour.
Asked about the criticism of China, Kenyatta said: “We don’t want to be forced to choose. We want to work with everybody, and
we believe that there is opportunity for everybody.
“There are those areas indeed where America
stands out and has much, much better strengths in certain fields. On the other
hand, you have the Chinese who build hospitals in seven days.”
First African trade pact?
The White House said Trump would speak to Kenyatta
about “new opportunities to advance cooperation and trade”.
Scott Eisner of the US Chamber of Commerce said the
private sector was increasingly paying attention to rumours that the US and
Kenya would start free-trade negotiations.
“There’s some big numbers you could hit over
the next six to 10 years should a big deal come together,” Eisner, head of
the Chamber’s US-Africa Business Centre, told reporters on a conference call.
He pointed to Kenya’s medical device industry, tech
sector and textiles as areas for trade and said the country had proven to be a “good market entry point” to East Africa.
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The United States has free-trade agreements with 20
countries, but none are in Africa.
Bob Lighthizer, the US trade representative, said
in 2018 that the Trump administration would choose one African country for a “model” free-trade agreement.
Driving the momentum for a trade deal, a US law
that sets import preferences for African goods is set to expire in 2025.
Passed by Congress in 2000, the African Growth and
Opportunity Act lets sub-Saharan nations export an array of products to the
United States tariff-free if they meet conditions such as maintaining a
market-based economy, protecting labour rights and combating corruption.
Trump is not known for his interest in Africa. But
the State Department announced on Wednesday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
would pay his first visit to Africa from February 15 to 19, stopping in
Senegal, Angola and Ethiopia.