Economic Partnership Agreement: Kenya

Baroness Sugg Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sugg (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I welcome the EPA’s focus on development and the commitment to continue to provide duty-free and quota-free access to the UK market for Kenyan goods. This will assist Kenya in seeing the growth benefits from international trade, aided by the appointment of Theo Clarke MP as trade envoy to Kenya and programmes such as TradeMark East Africa, which help promote trade between our two countries.

I appreciate the difficulties that there were in negotiating an EAC-wide agreement before Brexit. However, I share the concerns of the International Agreements Committee and civil society groups that the signing of individual EPAs could risk disruptive economic and political impacts and undermine some of the development objectives, particularly regional integration in east Africa. I would be grateful for my noble friend the Minister’s comments on that.

I am speaking before the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord McDonald of Salford, whom I had the pleasure of working with at the FCDO towards the end of his lengthy and loyal service. I agree wholeheartedly with his remarks yesterday that the cutting of our international development budget—moving in the opposite direction to the rest of the G7—is a strategic and regrettable mistake. I look forward to his experienced contributions to this place on that and other international issues.

This economic partnership and our broader relationship with Kenya—indeed, with the continent of Africa—is at risk due to the planned cut in international development. There are reports of our bilateral programmes in Kenya being cut by between 50% and 70%. Can my noble friend the Minister tell me what conversations his department has had with the FCDO about the impact of these cuts? Will the important trade programmes to which the Prime Minister recommitted last year at the UK-Africa Investment Summit—such as the successful TradeMark East Africa programme, which has a budget of $155 million up to 2023 in Kenya alone and has already allocated this funding to 36 projects—be fully protected? These projects are delivered in close partnership with the Government of Kenya, the EU, Ireland, Denmark, Finland and the United States. Will we uphold our commitment to them? Has an impact assessment been made of how the cuts in Kenya will affect our trade relationship?

Finally, does the Minister agree that one department trying to increase trade with Kenya while another undermines our bilateral relations and trade programmes through massive budget cuts is not exactly joined-up government?

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord Duncan of Springbank) (Con)]

I welcome and call the next speaker, the noble Lord, Lord McDonald of Salford.