More than 65,000 jobs at Kenya’s low-cost export processing zones (EPZs) are at stake if the US fails to renew a deal allowing duty-free access for African goods, which expires at midnight on Tuesday, exposing exporters to high tariffs.
Some of the firms that operate under the expiring African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), largely at the Athi River EPZ, reckon a sudden tariff shock threatens years of gains, and are fretful of losing market share in the US to competitive countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam.
