Kenya’s growing trade leadership

In December 2015, Nairobi became the first African capital to host a Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) since its founding 20 years ago. This year, Nairobi will once again become the first city – and Kenya, the first country – to host a quadrennial United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for the second time since its founding over half a century ago.

UNCTAD 14 will be the first United Nations conference after the milestone adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the 21st Conference of the Parties on climate change. When the Tenth Ministerial Conference took place, confidence in any meaningful trade liberalisation outcome through the WTO Doha Round was at its lowest. In fact, talk was rife in Geneva before the conference that Nairobi would sound the death knell for the Doha Round.