Shipping containers at the Port of Mombasa.
Kenya’s exports to the US jumped to a three-year high in the first eight months of 2025, signalling a scramble by traders to beat the September 30 expiry of the Growth Opportunity Act (Agoa) arrangement, which allowed them preferential access to the key market.
Data shows that Kenya’s shipments to the US hit Sh50.87billion between January and August 2025, marking the highest value since 2022 when it exported Sh52.25billion products over a similar window.
The January-August 2025 performance marked the third successive year of growth, data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) showed.
“In August 2025, Uganda, the United States of America, and Pakistan were the leading export destinations, with export values amounting to Sh11 billion, Sh6.3 billion, and Sh6 billion, respectively,” KNBS said.
Kenya’s trade with the US has been rocked by uncertainty this year following protectionist policies by President Donald Trump and the expiry of the preferential Agoa terms.
President Trump, on April 2, 2025, invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose a baseline tariff on all US trading partners in a bid to address what he termed as ‘absence of reciprocity in our bilateral trade relationships’.
Kenya was slapped with a 10per cent tariff on its exports to the US.
US-bound exports
Kenya is also among African countries set to be hardest hit by non-renewal of the Agoa deal with projections by the UN Conference on Trade and Development indicating that the country’s average weighted trade tariff with the US will nearly triple to 28 per cent on expiry of Agoa, signalling a major blow to jobs and investments in the country’s textile and apparel sector.
Trade records show that more than half of Kenyan exports to the US comprised clothing, macadamia, coffee, titanium ores and concentrates, and black tea.
Data further shows that three-quarters of US-bound exports benefit from duty-free access granted under Agoa.
Kenya’s textile and apparel industry is one of the biggest Agoa beneficiaries, earning a record Sh60.57 billion from textile exports to the US in 2024 — a growth of 19.20 percent over Sh50.82 billion in the prior year.
The Kenya Private Sector Alliance and the American Chamber of Commerce in Kenya have both urged a two-year transition period to cushion workers and investors against the shock of a sudden lapse of the Agoa deal.
Agoa was initiated in 2000 with the intention to wean developing nations from dependency on donations. It was initially planned to run for 15 years, but was later extended to June 2025.
The renewal of Agoa would require the approval of the US Congress, controlled by the protectionist President Trump’s Republican Party.
