Kenya has suffered a blow in its effort to change East Africa’s market access rules to allow duty-free sale of edible oil manufactured from imported raw material.

Kenya, with the support of Burundi, has been pushing for the review of East Africa Community’s rules of origin to give tax-free access to products even if imported raw material constitutes up to 70 per cent.

At the moment, edible oils only enjoy duty-free access to member states if wholly made from locally grown oil seeds like palm, soya bean, sunflower or cotton.

Kenya argues that preferential terms would safeguard the 9,000 direct jobs and $55 million worth of investments put in edible oil manufacturing across the region.

A team of experts appointed by the bloc to review Kenya’s case however warned that the region must keep its eye on the thousands of farmers who are likely to lose market if local firms get the free hand to import raw materials.

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