NAIROBI: Kenya and South Africa signed agreements Friday aimed at improving commercial relations between the two regional economic powerhouses before a planned visit by President Jacob Zuma next year. The deals were sealed during a visit by South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to east Africa's biggest economy. He said his trip was to create a better environment for businessmen to trade freely between the two countries. Kenyan businessmen say South African tariffs and other trade barriers can make it difficult to invest or sell some exports in the continent's biggest economy. Trade ministers from the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on agricultural cooperation and a double taxation treaty. “The agreement will facilitate investment in particular by removing the obligations which may exist at present of being taxed in both jurisdictions,” Motlanthe told Reuters. He said in an interview that the agriculture MOU would address the opening of South African markets to Kenyan produce. Currently, tea exported from Kenya attracts an import tax of four rand per kilogram and while soda ash attracts a 12 percent levy. Kenya, which is the world's biggest exporter of black tea, wants both to be zero rated. Kenya also cannot export livestock and livestock products due to strict health rules in South African, while there is a ban on avocados from Kenya due to fruit flies there, Kenyan Trade Minister Chirau Mwakwere told business delegates. He said Kenya had completed all the requirements for both livestock and avocado exports.
