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The beneficial effects of trade on any economy are well known, and an upscaled trading ability for SA would go a long way to improving its economic position. Benefits would be particularly extensive if they were those flowing from innovative downstream facets of the economy which expanded value-add supply chains.  Naturally enough, all this needs a growth-conducive context dependent on a variety of factors. Concrete steps must be taken by SA if it wants to give new focused attention on improving its trading situation. At a...

The improved agreement of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), due to expire in 2025, is likely to have fewer requirements for graduation from the programme to avoid beneficiaries losing out on the lucrative commercial ties with the US, says a top Washington diplomat. The legislation, which was enacted in 2000 and allows Sub-Saharan African countries preferential access to US markets, requires that beneficiaries be graduated out of the programme once they reach a certain level of development. But US trade representative Katherine...

Nearly 23 years since the United States established the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, the continent it was created for no longer exists. In the last two decades, there have been three major shifts that have worked together to cultivate a new Africa—an Africa that requires a different approach to trade and economic investment. First, there are China’s development initiatives, which have resulted in roads, rails, bridges, and airports. China has also invested in mining, fishing, and manufacturing, and shown...

Pankaj Bedi strides through his factory on the edge of Nairobi, past clattering sewing machines, bustling workers and boxes of jeans. None of this would be here, he says, were it not for the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The landmark trade policy was introduced by Bill Clinton in 2000, granting duty-free access for more than 6,000 products from sub-Saharan Africa. Two years later, Mr Bedi opened United Aryan, his clothing business in Kenya. He now employs 14,000 people. Lately Mr Bedi’s financiers have all been asking...

The United States and Kenya will hold an in-person round of conceptual discussions under their Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP) in Washington, DC, from February 6-10, 2023.   The United States delegation will be led by Assistant United States Trade Representative Connie Hamilton, and will include representatives from several other government agencies. United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai and then-Kenyan Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina launched the U.S.-Kenya STIPon July 14, 2022 and...

US treasury secretary Janet Yellen is in town this week. While news headlines have focused on the overlapping visits to the continent of Yellen, Russia’s Sergey Lavrov and China’s Qin Gang, Yellen’s comparative advantage is marked. She’s a pre-eminent economist — the first to have led the Federal Reserve, the White House council of economic advisers and the treasury — and she’s here to leverage that experience to build US-Africa relations. Fellow columnist John Dludlu recently suggested Washington’s overtures to Africa are...

The US is seeking to deepen its economic integration with South Africa in pursuit of policies to diversify global supply chains, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. Closer ties with nations that share the US’s economic values will help promote so-called friendshoring, in which allies cooperate on manufacturing and sourcing raw materials, Yellen said at a meeting with South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on Thursday.  Her remarks come in a week in which South Africa defended its neutral stance in Russia’s...

On December 14, 2022, the United States and African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat (AfCFTA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation for Trade and Investment between the United States and the African Continental Free Trade Area (MOU) see document alongside.  The MOU  was signed by U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai and AfCFTA Secretary General Wamkele Mene during the 2022 U.S.-Africa Business Forum.  The African Continental Free Trade Area was established in March 2018 and currently...

In early August, with its release of its strategy toward sub-Saharan Africa, the Biden-Harris administration laid out a bold vision for a 21st-century US-Africa partnership. The strategy and the upcoming Africa Leaders Summit, which President Biden and his deputy Harris will host in December, comes at the right time. Africa’s economic transformation — spurred by its young and rapidly urbanising populations, digitalisation initiatives, abundant natural and human resources, and a continent-wide commitment to free trade — has proceeded...

President Biden is delivering on his commitment to make Africa a priority for the United States. Most notable is his administration’s sharp uptick in U.S. diplomacy toward the region. With visits to Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal last November, Morocco and Algeria in March, and South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda this month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has visited the continent three times in just 10 months. This frequency of outreach is a first for any U.S. cabinet official, let alone a secretary of state...

The US unveiled a new strategy to forge closer relations with Sub-Saharan Africa, while contending that China and Russia were motivated by narrow self-interests in their attempts to strengthen ties with the region. With one of the world’s fastest-growing populations, largest free-trade areas by geographical area and most diverse set of ecosystems, Africa has a critical role to play in addressing the world’s defining challenges, the White House said in a document released Monday (download it here) to coincide with secretary of state...

Last year, the US’s Biden administration announced plans to increase two-way trade and investment between the US and Africa. The starting point was a revamp of the Trump-era “Prosper Africa initiative”. What sort of trade arrangement is the US proposing? In July 2021, the Biden-Harris administration launched the Prosper Africa Build Together Campaign. The idea was to elevate and energise the US’s commitment to trade and investment with countries across the African continent. The revamped Trump strategy includes a targeted,...

President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that the United States will bring together leaders from across the African continent for a major summit in December in Washington to discuss pressing challenges from food security to climate change. "The summit will demonstrate the United States’ enduring commitment to Africa, and will underscore the importance of U.S.-Africa relations and increased cooperation on shared global priorities," Biden said in a statement. The U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, scheduled for Dec. 13-15, was announced...

The Biden administration has given an indication of a possible resumption of trade talks between the US and Kenya. The two nations commenced negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) in July 2020, with a view of drafting a comprehensive agreement that would act as a model for similar pacts between the US and other African countries. But discussions around the agreement died down after Biden took over from his predecessor Donald Trump in January last year. The Biden administration has been conducting a forensic review of all agreements...

US trade policy toward Africa is facing a conundrum. Much has changed in the two decades since the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) set the framework for trade between the world's largest economy and its poorest continent. Many observers advocate new policies to increase U.S.-Africa trade and investment, especially with Agoa expiring in 2025. Yet the policy path is less clear than when Agoa became law, and the prospects for a substantial African trade initiative gaining political support are more challenging. When Congress passed...

The Joe Biden administration has announced plans to revamp the Trump-era Prosper Africa initiative, as it works to “substantially increase” two-way trade and investment between the US and Africa. With a focus on infrastructure, clean energy and healthcare, the White House said in recent weeks that it would kickstart a new Prosper Africa Build Together Campaign, having also requested US$80m from Congress in additional funding resources. “Our goal is to substantially increase two-way trade and investment between the United States and...

“We will be the guinea pig,” said Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s president, before trade talks with America opened last year. A deal would make Kenya only the second African country after Morocco to sign a free-trade agreement with the United States. Officials in the Trump administration called the proposed deal “a model” for future ones. But such bilateral talks jar with Africa’s push for regional integration and with President Joe Biden’s emphasis on multilateralism. Negotiations are now on hold while America works out what to do...

The U.S.’s trade chief plans to convene a meeting with African ministers before the end of the year to strengthen partnerships and discuss a law that provides duty-free access to the U.S. for thousands of goods from sub-Saharan nations. “It is important that we meet despite the pandemic to discuss how we can build on the successes of the African Growth and Opportunity Act,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in remarks prepared for delivery at the Corporate Council on Africa’s U.S.-Africa Business Summit Tuesday. She...

President Joe Biden is about to lose one of his main tools for getting trade agreements passed in Congress, dimming the outlook for deals already in the works with the U.K. and Kenya [See trade data below this article]. Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA, fast-track negotiating ability delegated to the U.S. president by Congress, is set to expire on Thursday. [See a FAQ guide here] That power, which was granted under the Trade Act of 1974, has typically been renewed when Biden’s predecessors wanted to pursue specific pacts. Biden...

A trade deal with the U.S. could help both Kenya and its neighbors in the East African Community by fostering the development of regional value chains, a former U.S. trade official tells Inside U.S. Trade. “I think it’d be really fascinating as we go forward with this U.S.-Kenya FTA to see what’s going to be possible not just for Kenya but for other African countries in various sectors,” Florie Liser, a former assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa who now heads the Corporate Council on Africa, said in an interview on...

President Donald J. Trump today announced the United States intends to initiate trade agreement negotiations with the Republic of Kenya following a meeting at the White House with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.  “Kenya is a recognized leader across the continent, an important strategic partner of the United States, and there is enormous potential for us to deepen our economic and commercial ties,” said United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.  “Under President Trump’s leadership, we look forward to...

The U.S. and Kenya are expected to announce negotiations on a free-trade agreement next week, America’s first such deal with a sub-Saharan country, a person familiar with the plans said. The Trump administration wants the accord to be a model for future pacts with other nations in the region, one of the people said, declining to be identified because the talks are private. An announcement on the discussion will coincide with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s visit to Washington next week. Macharia Kamau, Kenya’s principal secretary...

Editor's Note: On March 26, 2019, Brahima Coulibaly testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations. His written testimony on Africa's rapid transformation and U.S.-Africa relations follows. Thank you, Chairwoman Bass and Ranking Member Smith, for your leadership with respect to U.S. engagement with Africa. Your active role in fostering the bipartisan cooperation that has historically characterized U.S.-Africa legislation is exemplary. Thank...

The U.S. needs a new approach to Africa that is focused more on developing commercial ties and less on providing aid, analysts and government officials said Friday. Speaking at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event, Erin Walsh, assistant secretary of Commerce for global markets, said it was critical for the U.S. to pivot from a focus on aid to Africa to one of commercial engagement with African countries. To that end, she said, the President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa, which is led by Commerce...

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer sparked a new conversation in trade circles on Wednesday when he floated the idea of the Trump administration launching bilateral trade negotiations with an African country "before very long."  "Personally, I think that before very long we're going to have to pick out an African country — properly selected — and enter into a free trade agreement with that country," he said in an interview on Sirius XM radio channel "Patriot 125." "And then that will, if done properly, become a...

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expects the U.S. will soon strike a free trade deal with a “properly selected” African country that will become a model for others in the region, he said on Wednesday.   During a radio interview at the White House, Lighthizer was asked about the potential for U.S. trade in the African region – something covered by the African Growth and Opportunities Act, which he said was designed to “get these economies to start moving forward” with “rules and structure that allows...

Sub-Saharan Africa has both been the land of sourcing opportunity and the land where trade was most likely to remain close to status quo amid other potential adjustments to U.S. agreements. Now, the U.S. may be set to take a closer look at the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which affords eligible African countries duty free sourcing to the U.S. AGOA was renewed in 2015 and is set to remain in place until 2025, at which point it will again be up for renewal consideration. Since its inception in 2000, qualifying African countries...

With the African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum ending in Washington this week and the European Parliament approving further trade agreements with six African states earlier this month, the apparent race for African trade continues to intensify. This is no great surprise given the GDP of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is expected to grow 30 percent faster than the rest of the world over the next five years. By 2030, the region will have a quarter of both the world’s workforce and consumers. However, if we are serious about wanting...