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Local businesses are failing to exploit the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), says the director for export development at Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC), Mr Obert Yuyi. Mr Yuyi said this during a national AGOA response strategy workshop in Francistown on April 24. He said with the recent closure of mines around Francistown, unemployment was on the rise and that it required the business community to take over and employ locals. "Taking advantage of AGOA means businesses expanding and exporting, triggering employment...

President Trump’s Africa policy appears to be off to a bad start. First, there was the unfortunate leak of a remark made privately to a group of U.S. senators in February in which the President referred to African nations as “shithole countries.” Secondly, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s official goodwill visit to several African countries in March was spoiled by the fact that he had to cut his visit short by one day because he heard that the president was about to dismiss him. Nevertheless, there are clear signs that...

The Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce (NACC) has expressed readiness to partner the Edo State Government in the development of an export zone to explore opportunities in the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). This was disclosed by delegation of the Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce led by the chamber’s Vice Chairman, Alhaji Abayomi Adigun, on a courtesy visit at the Government House in Benin City, Edo State. Alhaji Adigun said the chamber reached a decision to set-up the AGOA Park in Edo State to facilitate export of...

Nigeria has lots of trade agreements with many economic partners meant not just to strengthen bilateral trade cooperation, but also to see that the agreements are of win-win situation. Some of the trade treaties are, however, not making any significant inputs to the economy and therefore due for periodic review. Though, some may be tedious and deliberately made difficult for review by the more favoured partner(s). However, there is no doubt that it is time for the Federal Government to have a second look at past trade agreements that are...

Covering letter: On November 29, 2017, the President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA), under the leadership of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, adopted its Issues Report, identifying the top obstacles U.S. companies face when approaching, competing in, and operating in African markets. The Council was then tasked with developing a set of recommendations for the U.S. government on how to diminish the obstacles highlighted in the Issues Report. The members of the PAC-DBIA have spent the last three months...

Fostering international development has long been viewed as central to the moral, humanitarian, strategic and security interests of the United States.  In particular, there is one area where the United States has been a leader in development assistance — providing trade preferences to African countries, most of which are low-income countries.  This has been achieved through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which was initially passed by U.S. Congress in 2000 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The...

Contrary to suspicion, Rwanda is not trying to undermine US hegemony in Africa in favour of China by phasing out used clothes. Consequently, President Trump’s AGOA salvo, which will find support in the US Congress, which is deeply suspicious of China, is a ploy to tame African leaders. The US has suspended the duty free status for Rwandan apparel under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Rwanda, in a brief statement released on April 3, indicated that this followed a decision in March 2016 by EAC member countries to raise tariffs on...

The US Ambassador to Uganda, Deborah Malac, has said Uganda has not taken full advantage of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Uganda is one of 38 African countries eligible for tariff-free and quota-free access to the US market. AGOA allows over 6,000 products to be exported to America. The AGOA arrangement has been in place for close to eighteen years but there are concerns that Uganda has not fully exploited this preferential trade opportunity. Ambassador Malac in an interface with journalists at the US Embassy in Kampala...

The Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC) has said it remains committed to promoting the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in Nigeria to give fillip to the Federal Government’s ongoing non-oil export drive aimed at diversifying the economy. Its President, Mr. Olabitan Famutimi, gave the commitment at the chamber’s breakfast meeting in Lagos, during the week. AGOA is the cornerstone of the United State (U.S.) trade and investment policy in Africa. The programme, signed into law by the U.S. Congress in 2000, is a...

Nigeria is yet to benefit from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), after it was signed into law in May, 2008. Mr Aliyu Abubakar, the Deputy Director, Trade Department, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday. Abubakar said that a draft strategy had been developed to ensure that the country benefitted from the act. According to him, AGOA is a unilateral trade preference programme that aims at increasing U.S. trade and investment with...

Rwanda has commended the United States government for having initiated the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and said it was at the discretion of Washington to withdraw AGOA benefits.  This is contained in a statement by the Ministry of Trade and Industry released Tuesday a few days after the US announced the intention to suspend Rwanda from the list of countries whose apparel exports enter the American market duty-free. The decision by the US is a result of a move by East African countries to raise tariffs used clothes to...

The U.S. said it plans to suspend duty-free access to Rwandan textile imports because of the African nation’s refusal to lower trade barriers for American-made clothing and shoes. The suspension applies to all AGOA-eligible apparel products from Rwanda in 60 days, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said in a statement on Thursday. The USTR last year began an “out-of-cycle" review to determine the eligibility of Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda to keep their trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. AGOA, which was...

Representatives of the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART) were notified today by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) that a proposed ban on secondhand clothing imports from the U.S. by members of the East African Community (EAC) will not be implemented by four out of the five countries who originally proposed the ban. Kenya announced their decision to back off from the ban in 2017, and Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi have now officially announced their decision to roll back the ban. SMART, a...

The President determined today the eligibility of Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda for trade preference benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). In response to a petition filed by the U.S. used clothing industry in March 2017, the Administration initiated an out-of-cycle review of Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda’s AGOA eligibility regarding their decisions to phase in a ban on imports of used clothing and footwear.  The review found that this import ban harms the U.S. used clothing industry and is inconsistent with...