Sri Lankan apparel exporters can use duty free trade deals and cheap labour in the West African state of Senegal to gain access to markets in North America, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce said.

A statement quoted Amadou Moustapha, newly appointed Ambassador of Senegal to Sri Lanka, as saying his country could be used as a production base by Sri Lankan apparel exporters.

“Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers can use Senegal as a production base to reach the North American markets easily and can perform back-end operations in Senegal," Amadou Moustapha told Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen during a courtesy call.

"They can use Senegals’ preferential access options such as EU/ACP, African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA), the West African Economic and Monetary Union, to their advantage in increasing North American and EU market share.”

According to the US Office of Textile and Apparel (OTEXA), the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) “offers significant potential growth for the local textile and apparel industries with duty-free, quota free access to the U.S. for products made up of either U.S. or sub-Saharan African produced fabric or yarn.

“Sri Lankan manufacturers will also benefit from the low labour wages, often less than 200 US dollars per month,” Moustapha said.

He said Senegal's proximity to North American markets and air and sea links can be used by Sri Lankan firms for prompt shipping and delivery of their products for North America.

“We also import the bulk of our textiles and apparels from Eastern Asia,” Moustapha said.

Bathiudeen also invited strong business and industry delegations from Senegal to Sri Lanka Expo 2012, an international expo show to be held in Colombo after 15 years in March 2012.

Latest AGOA Trade Data currently available on AGOA.info


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

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