Coats Madagascar unit expects revenue to rebound after AGOA restored
Coats Plc’s Madagascar unit expects to return to profit this year and revenue to recover in 2012 when U.S. trade concessions are restored, said Salim Mugon, the company’s director in the country.
Annual turnover at Coats Madagascar, the Indian Ocean island nation’s biggest sewing thread maker, fell by 50 percent to $1.6 million last year, Mugon said today in an interview in Antananarivo, the capital.
The U.S. suspended Madagascar from its Africa Growth & Opportunity Act, which allows African states to export goods to the U.S. duty-free, after Andry Rajoelina ousted Marc Ravalomanana as president with the help of the military in 2009. The European Union also suspended the country from its trade agreement and foreign donors stopped sending aid. The country is scheduled to hold elections this year.
“We don’t hold out hope for AGOA returning in 2011 but we do for 2012,” Mugon said.
Latest AGOA Trade Data currently available on AGOA.info
Click here to view a sector profile of Madagascar'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)