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"Botswana must utilise AGOA"

Published date:
Friday, 15 October 2004

The US Congress voted on Friday 8th October an amendment to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) III, giving Mauritius the ‘third country fabric’ exemption. The exemption is granted for one year with renewal opportunities for three more years.

Under the terms of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB), conference report, Mauritius will be treated as an LDC and, therefore, apparel made in Mauritius from third-country fabric will be eligible for duty-free status during the one-year period from October 1, 2004 to September 30, 2005. The provision will be retroactive to October 1, 2004, so duty refunds will be available for eligible cargoes that enter between October 1 and the date on which the provision is officially implemented, which is likely to be sometime in November or December.

In addition, Mauritian apparel made with third-country fabric will be subject to a special sub-cap set at 5% of the LDR TRQ for 2004-05. This is equal to approximately 27 million square metre equivalents (sme’s). In 2003, Mauritius exported approximately 45 million sme’s to the United States.

While more than 200,000 new apparel jobs have been created in LDCs across Africa in response to AGOA, apparel factory closures cost Mauritius 17,000 jobs, representing 20% of the apparel industry jobs it had before AGOA was enacted. This contraction of the Mauritian apparel industry is reflected in the official import statistics, which report that apparel imports from Mauritius to the US have declined 26% during the 12-month period August 2003-July 2004.



“AGOA Latest AGOA Trade Data currently available on AGOA.info


Click here to view a sector profile of Mauritius’ bilateral trade with the United States, disaggregated by total exports and imports, AGOA exports and GSP exports.


Other regularly updated trade statistics on AGOA.info include: (click each link to view)

  • AGOA-beneficiary Countries’ AGOA and GSP Trade Aggregates

  • AGOA Trade by Industry Sector

  • Apparel Trade under AGOA’s Wearing Apparel Provisions

  • Latest Apparel Quotas under AGOA

  • Bilateral Trade Data for all AGOA-eligible countries individually.

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