The top 10 U.S. retailers and importers of apparel, along with the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), met with Hon. Lee Kinyanjui, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Investments, Trade, and Industry (MITI) in New York on 24th September 2025.
Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest), alongside The top 10 U.S. retailers and importers of apparel, along with the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), met with Hon. Lee Kinyanjui, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Investments, Trade, and Industry (MITI) in New York on 24th September 2025., organised the roundtable with these importers and manufacturers from the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA).
Also present at the KenInvest roundtable were the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KEPSA Members),Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) and Special Economic Zones Authority (SEZA) teams from MITI.
Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest), alongside GATSBY, organised the roundtable with these importers and manufacturers from the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA).
Also present at the KenInvest roundtable were the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KEPSA Members), Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) and Special Economic Zones Authority (SEZA) teams from MITI.
The below was echoed by Jas Bedi, Chair of KEPSA, bilaterally with individual meetings with the buyers prior to commencement of the roundtable.
The importers recognised the global geopolitical realignment with global supply chains reorganising themselves with production shifts away from China and Asia, possibly to Africa and in particular Kenya.
The main concern is that in 7 days, the current AGOA Trade preference program will expire, exposing the importers to higher import tariffs.
Hence, the consensus was a renewal of AGOA for another 16 years, or a short-term transition window of a minimum 1-2 years in case of non-renewal, whilst Kenya negotiates a comprehensive Trade deal with the Trump administration to accord certainty to both the Kenyan manufacturers & US buyers.
Hon. Lee Kinyanjui confirmed that the Kenyan government had already submitted all necessary information needed by the US to consider this interim AGOA extension and conclude some trade agreements in the shortest possible time.
The complexities remain that AGOA is a multilateral trade agreement, whereas the current administration’s preference is bilateral Trade agreements.
Hence, Kenya remains at the discretion of the U.S., although all efforts remain focused on some reprieve beyond 30th September 2025 when the current AGOA trade preference program expires.
The CS confirmed that Kenya and the U.S. both have a special bond and strategic relationship beyond Trade and Investment, involving security with great political goodwill.
Hence, Kenya secured the lowest import tariff of 10% as compared to other countries.
Nonetheless, the Kenyan government is committed to enhancing this competitive advantage without erosion of the current Trade preference program, AGOA.
In addition, the Kenyan government is working to enhance competitiveness for Kenyan manufacturers to compete globally for market access, as secured for the UK, EU, EAC, COMESA and the TFTA migrating into AfCFTA.
The government is confident that the US government will accord a favourable Trade regime to Kenya to boost our current apparel exports from USD $600m to USD $2bn, creating 200,000 new jobs within the next few years as Kenya works by providing verticality to this industry with backward integration to manufacture textiles, yarn and cotton fibre as presented by KenInvest.
The industry players remain hopeful to see a positive outcome from the U.S. administration in the next few days.
