Washington,
USA
Kenyan
President Uhuru Kenyatta said Wednesday that African nations should be free to
cooperate with both the United States and China, warning that foreign powers
were exacerbating the continent's divisions.
President Kenyatta was
speaking on a visit to Washington, where speculation has built that the United
States will seek to negotiate a free-trade agreement with Kenya, in what would
be a first with an African nation.
On the eve of his talks with
President Donald Trump, President Kenyatta said he was "very
concerned" about a return to the Cold War era when Africans had to choose
between the United States and the Soviet Union.
"Western countries, and
their counterparts in Asia and the Middle East, are returned to competition
over Africa, in some cases weaponising divisions, pursuing proxy actions and
behaving like Africa is for the taking.
"Well, I want to tell you
it is not," he said at the Atlantic Council think tank.
China has been funding
billions of dollars worth of infrastructure around the world, including a
modern new rail-line between Nairobi and the port of Mombasa, as part of its
Belt and Road Initiative.
The United States has been
increasingly vocal in urging developing nations to be wary, warning that they
can be saddled with unpayable debts to Beijing for projects built largely with
Chinese labour.
Asked about the criticism of
China, President Kenyatta said: "We don't want to be forced to choose. We
want to work with everybody, and we believe that there is opportunity for
everybody.
"There are those areas
indeed where America stands out and has much, much better strengths in certain
fields. On the other hand, you have the Chinese who build hospitals in seven
days."
The White House said Trump
would speak to President Kenyatta about "new opportunities to advance
cooperation and trade."
Scott Eisner of the US Chamber
of Commerce said the private sector was increasingly paying attention to
rumours that the US and Kenya would start free-trade negotiations.
"There's some big numbers
you could hit over the next six to 10 years should a big deal come
together," Eisner, head of the Chamber's US-Africa Business Center, told
reporters on a conference call.
He pointed to Kenya's medical
device industry, tech sector and textiles as areas for trade and said the
country had proven to be a "good market entry point" to East Africa.
The United States has
free-trade agreements with 20 countries but none are in Africa.
Bob Lighthizer, the US trade
representative, said in 2018 that the Trump administration would choose one
African country for a "model" free-trade agreement.
Driving the momentum for a
trade deal, a US law that sets import preferences for African goods is set to
expire in 2025.
Passed by Congress in 2000,
the African Growth and Opportunity Act lets sub-Saharan nations export an array
of products to the United States tariff-free if they meet conditions such as
maintaining a market-based economy, protecting labour rights and combating corruption.
Trump is not known for his
interest in Africa. But the State Department announced Wednesday that Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo would pay his first visit to Africa from February 15 to
19, stopping in Senegal, Angola and Ethiopia. - AFP
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