(NDAgConnection.com) – In comments submitted late last week to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the National Pork Producers Council urged U.S. trade negotiators to use the recently launched Strategic and Investment Partnership with Kenya to eliminate that country’s unjustified restrictions on U.S. pork imports.

With a population of more than 50 million, an expanding middle class — and relatively strong tourism-driven demand from the hotel, restaurant, and institutional food service sector — the African nation has the potential to be a significant export market for U.S. pork products, NPPC noted in its comments.

But Kenya has tariff, a 25% duty, and non-tariff barriers, including complex, opaque, and costly requirements that limit U.S. pork imports. USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service reports that all imports of certain agricultural products, including meat, must be physically inspected and tested at the port of entry to ensure conformity with relevant Kenyan standards.

NPPC requested that Kenya eliminate its onerous testing and inspection requirements for U.S. pork, eliminate non-science-based sanitary and phytosanitary barriers, and recognize the equivalence of U.S. pork production practices and the U.S. food safety inspection and approval system for pork slaughter, processing, and storage plants.