Economic Partnership Agreement: Kenya

Lord Collins of Highbury Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My Lords, let me start by echoing the remarks of other noble Lords in welcoming the noble Lord, Lord McDonald. He showed remarkable ability in being able to say so much in such a short period of time. I hope he will continue with that record.

I also echo the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Sugg, which complemented those of the noble Lord, Lord McDonald, on support for the Government’s commitment to ODA. I saw first hand last year the in-country programmes in Kenya, in particular on nutrition and agriculture, which is what this agreement could particularly impact, and the diversity of agriculture which is necessary to ensure proper nutrition. One of the problems with the focus on trade is that often those agricultural products that we import are not delivering for the people of Kenya in the way that they should in terms of nutrition. I hope that we will return to that subject later on.

This continuity agreement is one of 10 that came into effect on 1 January, and it is the only one that has been subject to any form of debate in either House. This illustrates how the CRaG process is totally inadequate in guaranteeing proper parliamentary scrutiny of new trade deals before they come into effect. Like other noble Lords, I welcome the changes that were made in the Trade Bill; I understand that they will now be called the “Grimstone protocols”, which is great news, as I can keep repeating that name.

The Minister may well say that this is just a rollover agreement but, as we have heard in this debate and as the analysis by the International Agreements Committee shows, this is not the case. There should have been a proper discussion before this deal came into effect, given its implications for the rest of the East African Community. As the noble Lord, Lord Oates, highlighted, I hope the Minister will respond in full to the committee’s request to explain what other options were considered for ensuring continuity of trading arrangements with Kenya, and why they were not pursued. In particular, what representations were made by the other EAC members and stakeholders, and how have the Government sought to evaluate those and address their concerns?

As the noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, noted, we know that Kenya’s Parliament failed in December to ratify the trade agreement with the UK, calling for a supplementary report on the economic partnership agreement. Last week, the Kenya Small Scale Farmers Forum sued the Kenyan Government, arguing that the process of the deal’s ratification was extremely flawed as no public participation was conducted by the Kenyan Government before the document was proposed in the Kenyan Parliament. In a statement, the farmers said that

“an open market with heavily subsidized tariffs for the UK farm products like chicken, pigs and maize”

would have

“the dangerous potential to destroy local production of the very same products”.

We had a debate on the EU EPA in this House, in November 2016, when all these issues were raised in relation to the development project and, in particular, the question of how we would deliver on the 2030 agenda to build sustainable development.

One other issue I want to raise, in addition to those identified by the committee, and which I focused on during debate on the Trade Bill, is human rights provisions in the Kenya deal. We have all heard the mantra of Ministers that these agreements simply maintain the status quo from the EU agreements that came before them. In some cases that is certainly true; for example, the agreement with the Ivory Coast signed by the Government in November 2020 and published in sufficient time for it to receive the full 21 sitting days of parliamentary scrutiny before taking effect on 1 January. Annexe 3 to that agreement replicates the effect and language of the EU’s Cotonou Agreement with the African, Caribbean and Pacific states, committing both parties to uphold human rights and the rule of law as an essential element of the agreement, spelling out the process and consequences that would follow any violation of that commitment. The Kenya agreement contains the same Annexe 3 as that of the Ivory Coast but removes the entire section dealing with the consequences of any violations of the human rights commitments. There is no explanation as to why; I hope the Minister will be able to explain that tonight.

I have argued in this House that we should use continuity agreements to strengthen the provisions in trade agreements relating to human rights—but here, in the Kenya agreement, there is a clear example of where the Government have actually done the opposite. One reason that this matters is that, as other noble Lords have pointed out, other East African Community countries will be able to join the EPA—countries that, according to Amnesty International, have a clear poor human rights record. We should focus on the implications of that.

Regional press reports this week say that Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda have demanded the extension of the negotiation period by one year so that they can sign the agreement as a bloc. I hope the Minister will be able to tell us exactly what the implications of that are.

Finally, as the Minister doubtless knows, Africa is home to 30 of the world’s 40 most climate-vulnerable countries, and Kenya ranks 152 out of 181, with an increasing prevalence of droughts and floods. Where once the rains marked the predictable changing of the seasons and could be relied on by smallholder farmers for their livelihoods, climate change and plagues of locusts are wreaking deadly havoc.

However, in the hustle and bustle of Nairobi, Kenya has hope for a bright and green future, planning a new sovereign green bond. The UK’s development budget has been very actively involved in encouraging Kenya’s green transition—so what assurance can the Minister give that the UK’s support for Kenya’s climate ambitions will be protected from the spending cuts that the Chancellor has imposed on this vital work?