{"id":13211,"date":"2021-03-03T08:44:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T08:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/?p=13211"},"modified":"2021-12-01T12:40:40","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T12:40:40","slug":"kenya-must-not-backslide-on-plastics-as-fta-negotiations-resume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/press\/13211\/kenya-must-not-backslide-on-plastics-as-fta-negotiations-resume\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya Must Not Backslide on Plastics as FTA Negotiations Resume"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large  caption-style-medium caption-alignment-center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2020\/09\/babc1a74-a-youth-protesting-against-plastic-waste-to-mark-global-climate-change-day-at-uhuru-park-themed-africaisnotadumpster-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12286\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2020\/09\/babc1a74-a-youth-protesting-against-plastic-waste-to-mark-global-climate-change-day-at-uhuru-park-themed-africaisnotadumpster-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2020\/09\/babc1a74-a-youth-protesting-against-plastic-waste-to-mark-global-climate-change-day-at-uhuru-park-themed-africaisnotadumpster-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2020\/09\/babc1a74-a-youth-protesting-against-plastic-waste-to-mark-global-climate-change-day-at-uhuru-park-themed-africaisnotadumpster-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2020\/09\/babc1a74-a-youth-protesting-against-plastic-waste-to-mark-global-climate-change-day-at-uhuru-park-themed-africaisnotadumpster-510x340.jpg 510w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2020\/09\/babc1a74-a-youth-protesting-against-plastic-waste-to-mark-global-climate-change-day-at-uhuru-park-themed-africaisnotadumpster.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">REACTIVE<\/h2>\n\n<p><strong>Nairobi, 3 March 2021 &#8211;<\/strong>\u00a0 Responding to the news that Kenya and the United States are set to resume talks on the bilateral trade agreement after a four-month break, Greenpeace Africa\u2019s Senior Political Advisor, Fredrick Njehu has said:<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThe US-Kenya free trade talks should not be used as a justification to undermine Kenya\u2019s efforts to regulate the use of single-use plastics, nor as a guise to gain access to the rest of the African continent. The new office of the US Trade Representative should pursue a new trade policy agenda that includes strong environmental sustainability elements, putting people first&nbsp; and not corporations.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThe new US Trade representative, Katherine Tai, has an obligation to use trade deals to advance the goal of tackling the climate crisis the world is undergoing, and any further trade agreements that undermines this should be called off. Strengthening global cooperation amongst states should be the panacea of tackling the climate crisis.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cGreenpeace Africa hopes that Kenya\u2019s government doesn&#8217;t chase every carrot dangling in front of it. Kenya should not backslide on its acclaimed plastic bans now that the trade negotiations have resumed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Media contacts:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n<p>Greenpeace Africa Press Desk: pressdesk.africa@greenpeace.org<\/p>\n\n<p>Hellen Dena, Communications and Story Manager, hdena@greenpeace.org, +254 717 104 144<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Notes to the Editor:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Kenya and the US formally launched negotiations for a free trade agreement on 8 July last year, months after president Kenyatta and former US president Donald Trump made the announcements in February 2020.<\/li><li>Last year, Greenpeace\u2019s investigative journalism unit, <em>Unearthed<\/em> uncovered that the ACC wanted the United States government to insist that Kenya relax its existing plastic bans so that it could make Kenya a gateway to Africa for plastic trade \u2013 and then sell us <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/blogs\/11670\/recycling-is-a-false-solution-to-plastic-pollution\/\">recycling as a \u201cfalse solution\u201d<\/a> to the environmental catastrophe it would cause.<\/li><li>The aforementioned expos\u00e9, published in the <em>New York Times<\/em>, blew open the relationship between the plastic and petrochemical industries. Plastic is made of oil therefore its production is contributing to the climate change crisis we face.<\/li><\/ul>\n\t\t\t<section\n\t\t\tclass=\"boxout post-30 \"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-action=\"Image\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n\t\t\t\tclass=\"cover-card-overlay\"\n\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/act\/plasticfreefuture\/\" \n\t\t\t><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsrc=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2018\/10\/df2352b8-gp0stsib7.jpg\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsrcset=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2018\/10\/df2352b8-gp0stsib7-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2018\/10\/df2352b8-gp0stsib7-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2018\/10\/df2352b8-gp0stsib7-510x287.jpg 510w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2018\/10\/df2352b8-gp0stsib7.jpg 960w\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsizes=\"(min-width: 1000px) 358px, (min-width: 780px) 313px, 88px\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\talt=\"Plastic Clean Up and Brand Audit Activity in Africa.\" title=\"Plastic Clean Up and Brand Audit Activity in Africa.\"\n\t\t\t\t\/>\n            \t\t\t<div class=\"boxout-content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"boxout-heading medium\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-action=\"Title\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/act\/plasticfreefuture\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPlastic Free Future\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t                                    <a\n                        class=\"btn btn-primary\"\n                        data-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n                        data-ga-action=\"Call to Action\"\n                        data-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n                        href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/act\/plasticfreefuture\/\"\n                        \n                    >\n                        Get Involved\n                    <\/a>\n                \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nairobi, 3 March 2021-&nbsp; Responding to the news that Kenya and the United States are set to resume talks on the bilateral trade agreement after a four-month break<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":12286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[30,64],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-13211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspirethemovement","tag-plastics","tag-kenya","p4-page-type-press"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13211"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49890,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13211\/revisions\/49890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13211"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=13211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}