We Have Been Too Patient: Uganda Threatens To Ban Kenya’s Agricultural Products In Fresh Trade Row
By Uganda Online
Kampala: In a bid to revenge against Kenyas’ continued ban on Kampala’s products, Uganda is considering banning some of Kenya’s raw and processed agricultural products from its market.
On Monday, the Ugandan Cabinet agreed to the nearly two-year proposal, which has often been opposed by President Yoweri Museveni.
According to Rebecca Kadaga, the minister for East African Affairs, Cabinet directed the Agriculture ministry to identify and list Kenyan products that will be banned by the Ugandan government within “a short time.”
“We have been too patient. In the past, we have not reciprocated, but now we are going to. This has gone on for too long and within a short time they too will understand what we are going through,” Kadaga said during a press conference on Tuesday.
Kenya and Uganda have for a long time been embroiled in a trade dispute.
The latest hostilities between the two EAC partner states began brewing in December 2019, when Kenya stopped importing Ugandan milk, particularly the Lato brand.
In July 2020, Kenya followed up with a ban on Ugandan sugar, against an earlier agreement to increase Uganda’s sugar exports to Kenya.
Players within Uganda’s poultry industry this week petitioned their government over Kenya’s ban of Uganda’s poultry products from their market for nearly a year.
Kenya maintains that some of the products are substandard and that it’s protecting its domestic market.
In November, Nairobi postponed a trade mission to Uganda to resolve the sugar and milk import standoff, amid jitters on whether the two countries are ready to find a lasting solution to the impasse.
Kenya is Uganda’s biggest trade partner. Kenyan exports to Uganda in 2020 amounted to $673.66 million while Uganda’s exports to Kenya stood at $465.55 million during the same period.
