Legislation to extend AGOA's third country fabric provisions - currently set to expire at the end of September 2011 - has been introduced in Congress and referred to the House Ways and Means Committee.

The proposed legislation would extend a key piece of the AGOA legislation - considered critical for the garment inductry in a number of AGOA-beneficiary countries - to 2015 and thus allow producers to continue sourcing their fabric requirements from abroad.

The matter is also considered urgent, as large international buyers plan their sourcing a minimum of 6-12 months in advance. Uncertainty around the provision has increased the risk of orders being lost and the sector to incur substantial losses going forward. While African clothing exporters account for only a very small fraction of total US garment imports, from an African perspective this provision remains an important lifeline for the sector.

At the recent US-Africa AGOA Forum held in Lusaka Zambia, the African Clothing and Textile Industries Federation (ACTIF) also urged an extension of the third country apparel provisions.

The legislation also proposes that the Republic of South Sudan be made an AGOA-eligible country.

Bill H.R. 2493 was introduced by Rep Jim McDermott and others and can be downloaded directly at this link or from AGOOA.info's legal documents archive.

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