Kenya is taking steps to expand exports and raise the country’s share of new investments. The country will particularly be focusing on trade windows such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the European Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) which have not been fully exploited.

AGOA, for instance, grants quota and duty-free access to the US market of more than 6,000 product lines but has been dominated by exports of textile and apparel, which account for 65 per cent of total exports. The US is Kenya’s largest apparel export destination.

The aim is to increase manufacturing to 20 per cent of the GDP. Kenya’s textile sector seeks to grow exports to 20 per cent annually by 2022. Kenya is looking to expand the list of products it exports. With the country becoming more visible on the global map, local traders are increasingly opening more supply channels to the US, helped by increased interactions with American investors. Kenya’s volume of international trade in 2017 expanded by 15.4 per cent.

Textile and apparel products continue to dominate Kenyan exports under AGOA since it was enacted in 2000. AGOA exports constituted 60 per cent of all Kenyan goods shipped to the US in 2017.