Look at this product. Kenya v China. How strong are Kenya's antidumping laws?

Okiya

Elder Lister
Kenya's PPE is Kshs 2,500 while China's is Kshs 810. That's 3x cheaper.

Making PPE doesn't need technical skills. So we rule out labor as the reason why the Kenyan one is expensive. The materials for making PPE are also locally available in both markets.

This is simply dumping which is a national policy in China. Dumping" is defined as the act of a manufacturer in one country exporting a product to another country at a price that is either below the price it charges in its home market or is below its cost of production. The goal of "dumping" is to capture the market or destroy the competition for a particular product or commodity so the price to the end user or consumer is lowered way below the competition, often below cost.


I haven't read Kenya's antidumping laws which were implemented in 2018 but my opinion is tougher action is needed by charging extra import duty on particular products from China in order to bring their price closer to the "normal value" and to remove the injury to domestic industry.


This strategy is a painful one for the few traders who have been importing cheaper goods from China but for the greater good in the long run, we have to bite the bullet. Should we fail then even the few traders who have been benefiting from the dumping of Chinese products will be wiped out. because the Chinese will set up shops in Kenya and compete with the Kenyan traders.



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The issue is not dumping. The issue is having efficient supply chains. Kenyans pay the highest prices for the poorest quality due to the protections you are alluding to. People continue living in grass-thatched houses because they cannot afford iron sheets even when the product is dirt cheap in world markets. Why is this the case? Because some middle-man has been set up to undertake 'local production'. I put it in quotations because the product is already 95% complete when it arrives as raw materials . The 5% value addition by a local factory leads to a 200% increase in cost. The result is a few poorly paid workers who cannot feed themselves or educate their children, a few people raking in super profits, and millions of people living in leaking houses even though they could afford roofing sheets on the world market. That is how the Kenyan economy operates. Those suits at kikotec are made using materials imported from China through expensive and inefficient supply chains, hence the inflated cost.
 
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The issue is not dumping. The issue is having efficient supply chains. Kenyans pay the highest prices for the poorest quality due to the protections you are alluding to. People continue living in grass-thatched houses because they cannot afford iron sheets even when the product is dirty cheap in world markets. Why is this the case? Because some middle-man has been set up to undertake 'local production'. I put it in quotations because the product is already 95% complete when it arrives as raw materials . The 5% value addition by a local factory leads to a 200% increase in cost. The result is a few poorly paid workers who cannot feed themselves or educate their children, a few people raking in super profits, and millions of people living in leaking houses even though they could afford roofing sheets on the world market. That is how the Kenyan economy operates. Those suits at kikotec are made using materials imported from China through expensive and inefficient supply chains, hence the inflated cost.

Simply put the way of doing business in Kenya is growth centred and not people centred.
 
Making PPE doesn't need technical skills. So we rule out labor as the reason why the Kenyan one is expensive. The materials for making PPE are also locally available in both markets.
have you factored in the cost of power? How much of the process is automated? The economies of scale in a Chinese megafactory? You say materials are locally available, what are these materials and were they originally imported?
What is their cost of production for you cannot accuse them of selling below cost without the numbers.
 
have you factored in the cost of power? How much of the process is automated? The economies of scale in a Chinese megafactory? You say materials are locally available, what are these materials and were they originally imported?
What is their cost of production for you cannot accuse them of selling below cost without the numbers.

Making PPE is not highly automated. You think all factories in China are mega? China selling some of its products below cost is well documented. Read trade journals
 
If you say and believe so...
But what else do they make when they are not making PPEs?

I dont know what else they make. That's a tough question which am sure you also dont know the answer.
But your points suggest that you dont believe dumping happens.
 
I dont know what else they make. That's a tough question which am sure you also dont know the answer.
But your points suggest that you dont believe dumping happens.
Dumping happens but we cannot say this is a case of dumping with the scanty data you have provided, critically missing being the real cost of production at the China Factory.
 
Dumping happens but we cannot say this is a case of dumping with the scanty data you have provided, critically missing being the real cost of production at the China Factory.

Cost of production can be approximated that's why I used a simple non technical good. First the cost of labor is in China way above that in Kenya.
 
Cost of production can be approximated that's why I used a simple non technical good. First the cost of labor is in China way above that in Kenya.
There's also the question I asked you about the material for making the PPEs which instinct tells me is imported from China with duties and taxes paid before it gets to Kikotec.
 
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