KEPSA participated in a three-day validation workshop for the draft Kenya-European Union (EU) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Implementation Strategy held from 18^th to 21^st February 2025 in Nairobi. The National Kenya-EU EPA Implementation Strategy presented the priorities of the Government of Kenya (GoK), the private sector and civil society in the implementation of the EPA, particularly priority interventions that would enable:

• Resolution of market access constraints; notably those which affect the ability of Kenya exports to access EU markets, including Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Customs and Trade Facilitation, Structured Commodity Trade and Digital Trade; and
• Kenyan businesses to conduct Sustainable Trade Development (such as measures on climate mitigation, environmental protection, respect for labour rights, and gender equality.

According the private sector representatives in the workshop, it was important that a chapter that expressly covered matters of competitiveness be covered in the strategy. This would speak to matters that would continuously improve Kenya and the EAC competitiveness to ensure that the regions learn from the EU especially during the initial years of the agreement before the complete liberalization of the 82% of goods originating in the EU imported into Kenya. The chapter should cover matters of skills transfer, enhancing the regulatory environment and ease of doing business as well as Intellectual Property rights provisions.

It was agreed that ahead of the national validation of the strategy on 7^th March 2025 a roll-out plan to achieve the GoK, private sector and civil society priorities and the expected budget support to achieve them, including a proposed implementation timeframe and a monitoring and evaluation system would be clearly stipulated in the strategy. It would cover the following;

• The specific EPA implementation priorities for which support from the EU, its Member States and/or other donors would be needed, taking into account the support already ongoing in these areas;
• A coordination mechanism between the GoK MDAs, the private sector and civil society in the EPA implementation and possible requests of assistance; and
• The types of linkages that should be established and/or strengthened between the Kenyan and EU private sectors to enable effective two-way trade and investment to be achieved.