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Ethiopia: Exports to the US poor

Published date:
Thursday, 28 June 2007

Ethiopia has not done enough to penetrate the US market although that was possible under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a new study revealed on Wednesday.

Introduced five years ago to support developing countries to sell their products to the USA market, AGOA gives 38 sub Sahara African countries, including Ethiopia a duty -free access to USA markets for more than 6,000 products.

The study showed despite huge potential to export a host of products to the US, Ethiopia, out of out of the 38 countries, fared poor in capitalization on the trade opportunity.

The study which was presented at a conference jointly organized by the Ministry of Trade and Investment and partners indicated that Ethiopia's experience under AGOA is poor compared to these countries which were granted the opportunity.

The study indicates Ethiopia's export to the USA under AGOA was only $ 7 million in 2006, much lower than most of the other countries in the group which made hundreds of millions in foreign currency.

In 2006, USA imports under the AGOA were $ 44.2 billion, 16 % more than the previous year, the study notes.

However, Ethiopia's share is very week compared to other countries that shared the $ 44.2 billion export earning to the USA market.

South Africa, Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, republic of Congo, Gabon and Chad are the top countries said to be utilizing the AGOA opportunity properly.

The two day conference which kicked off yesterday at the UNCC, deliberated on the challenges standing on Ethiopia's path to exploiting AGOA opportunities.

Poor access to finance, investment climate, trade facilitation, and lack of efficient transportation and telecommunication systems, were identified as catalysts impeding the desired objectives from being achieved.

Apparel, cut flowers, live plants, nuts, special case of coffee are products currently exported by Ethiopia to the USA under AGOA, out of the 6,000 products allowed by AGOA.

Joint public- private sector dialogue and export strategies are essential to tackling competitiveness challenges," a document under the title Ethiopia seeing real benefits, but much greater potential presented for discussion by the USA trade representative said.



“ Latest AGOA Trade Data currently available on AGOA.info


Click here to view a sector profile of Ethiopia’s 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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