The US will block all cloth imports under the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) if the fabric is from countries that are outside the AGOA arrangement in 2006, reports Anne Mugisa.

US Ambassador Jimmy Kolker on Monday said the agreement on sourcing the fabric from countries outside the AGOA arrangement expires in 2006.

"Fabrics and cloth for AGOA must come from an AGOA-eligible country. I hope Uganda will seize that opportunity," Kolker said at the globalisation seminar he opened at Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi. He said AGOA was extended to 2016. Note from AGOA.info: The third country apparel rule expires in September 2007, although the allocated quota for third country fabrics will halve in the 2006/2007 period. AGOA itself will expire in 2015

Participants from Nkozi, Mbarara University and the University of Wisconsin in the US are attending the seminar, whose theme is "Africa's quest for sustained development."