AGOA at 10: Reflections on US-Africa trade with a focus on SACU countries
This paper provides an overview of the current AGOA legislation and tracks legislative amendments over its first decade. This is followed by an analysis of African exports to the US, with a more detailed focus on three sample sectors (the automotive sector, the clothing manufacturing sector and the fruit and fruit juice sector) that benefit from AGOA and which are of relevance to SACU. A review of trade between SACU member states and the US (bi-directional) reveals that most SACU exports enter the US duty-free (mostly under AGOA, but also in other duty-free categories), whereas SACU imports from the US are still to a significant extent subject to tariff barriers. The paper concludes by reviewing the proposed legislative amendments that are currently being considered by the US Congress, some of which are likely to have a significant impact on current recipients of AGOA preferences.