Kenya's Foreign Trade Policy And Regulations

Trade Barriers

Non-Tariff Barriers

1. Technical Barriers to Trade.

Kenya's technical regulations relating to trade are inadequate, lacking clear technical standards, and some technical standards and regulations are not in line with international standards. This, coupled with the lack of transparency in the work of the Bureau of Standards, Customs and other agencies, prevents foreign exporters from obtaining timely information on technical standards and conformity assessment procedures from authoritative authorities.

2. Barriers to customs clearance.

Kenya's import clearance procedures are lengthy and decentralised, with Customs opening almost all goods for inspection. In addition, Kenyan customs valuation is arbitrary, which may result in an overestimation of the duty-paid price of imported goods. At the same time, it is difficult for importers to challenge the duty-paid price because of the high demurrage charges incurred when goods are not allowed to enter customs during the challenge period.

Tariff barriers

Kenya is one of the few countries in the world that still uses a unified tariff system, which is mostly ad valorem, and in 2004 the East African Community Customs Union was established with a uniform tariff for external use and duty-free or lower tariff rates for internal use.

Export restrictions

In addition to export restrictions placed on a few products for reasons such as public food safety, conservation of flora and fauna and resources, Kenya also requires that goods in bonded warehouses, duty-refunded goods and goods in transit cannot be transported in vessels of less than 250 tonnes capacity.

Import controls

Importers must obtain an import licence or foreign exchange allocation licence issued jointly by the Ministry of Commerce and the Central Bank before being allowed to import. Kenya classifies imports into four categories: highest priority imports, second priority imports, approval by the competent authority before issuing a licence and strict control over the issuance of licences. Licences are valid for 6 months or 3 months and may be extended once after the expiry date.

Kenya PVOC

The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) introduced the Pre-Export Verification of Product Conformity to Standards (PVOC) scheme on 29 September 2005. All goods in the PVOC catalogue must obtain a Certificate of Conformity (COC) issued by a KEBS authorised body before they can be shipped out; the COC is a mandatory customs clearance document in Kenya, without which entry will be refused.