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It seems like there’s a change of heart as reality starts to sink in that cutting ties with the United States could cost the country $1.7 billion in export earnings annually, which has more than doubled since 2000. The recent rhetoric out of the ANC has been construed as Anti-West, while a lot of government’s activity has also pointed to Russia and China, but the US trade agreement cannot be scoffed at. The job and revenue losses will be too great. South Africa says it has done all it can to retain access to AGOA, while the U.S....

In September 2015, president Obama renewed the African Growth and Opportunity Act (“AGOA 5”) for an additional 10-year bringing its closure to 2025. AGOA has drawn mixed results and a successful 2025 closure will need a change of recipe both from the US and African countries. How can African countries therefore change their game, decode and achieve a successful 2025 closure? AGOA extends the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) to Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries and allow them to export around 7,000 products to the US with no...

Sub-­Saharan Africa is one of the fastest ­growing regions for U.S. agricultural exports and a high-ranking U.S. official plans to visit the area to make sure the growth stays on course, but a lingering disagreement with South Africa is causing complications, GlobalMeatNews reports. 2014 was a record year for U.S. poultry meat and prepared food exports to sub-Sahara, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Surging demand, a growing middle class and a strong economic outlook is helping drive...

Tanzania has been challenged to come up with a strategy that would help the country to benefit from doing business with investors in the United States under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) programme. The programme provides eligible sub-Saharan countries duty-free access to the world’s top apparel and about other 6,000 products market, giving Africa a competitive edge over rival suppliers such as Bangladesh and Vietnam. The US Congress has already renewed the program well ahead of its expiry date of September 30, 2015. The...

International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane has acknowledged that there has been a breakdown in communication between Pretoria and Washington and that both sides have accepted that it needs to be fixed. Friction over SA’s eligibility for trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) and SA’s refusal to co-operate with the Obama administration in its efforts to cut global stocks of weapon grade uranium are part of a list of factors complicating a relationship SA itself has seemed to...

South Africa has used discussions with US veterinary officials to open up dialogue about its ostrich and beef exports to America. The country has been trying to obtain health certification for its beef exports to the US for five years, African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) special envoy Faizel Ismail told BDlive during a telephonic interview on Wednesday. The two sides met on Monday in Pretoria to thrash out key sticking points on US meat imports to SA, as well as exports to the US. Representatives from the departments of Trade and...

In July, US President Barack Obama visited Africa and shared an important message at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi and at the African Union in Addis Ababa. He said: "As Africa changes, I’ve called on the world to change its approach to Africa. So many Africans have told me, we don’t want just aid, we want trade that fuels progress. We don’t want patrons, we want partners who help us build our own capacity to grow. We don’t want the indignity of dependence, we want to make our own choices…" Today, citizens of...

Talks between US and SA veterinary officials in Pretoria over the removal of SA’s health-related import bans on US chicken, beef and pork made "some progress", the office of the US trade representative said in a terse statement on Tuesday. The dispute, which is threatening SA’s duty-free access to the US market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), is also being discussed in Washington this week in the context of the US-SA strategic dialogue, a structured round of bilateral meetings. The SA delegation is led by...

US Senators Chris Coons and Johnny Isakson have again written to President Jacob Zuma, urging him to open up the South African market to US poultry “expeditiously” to avoid South Africa losing lucrative export benefits to the US. Coons of Delaware and Isakson of Georgia both represent major poultry-producing states. They wrote their latest urgent appeal to Zuma as agricultural and trade officials from the US and SA were meeting in Pretoria to try to resolve the protracted dispute over US meat imports. At stake is South Africa’s...

SA was not restricting poultry imports from the US, but wanted imports to meet global health safety standards and not put consumers at risk, deputy director-general of international trade at the Department of Trade and Industry Xolelwa Mlumbi-Peter said on Sunday. On Monday, SA and US veterinarian experts meet amid threats by US politicians to reimpose tariffs on a range of SA goods unless Pretoria lifts restrictions on US chicken, beef and pork imports. SA had already addressed concerns on beef and pork, with the only outstanding...

What came first, the chicken or the trade dispute? The two have blurred together for U.S. negotiators holding $1 billion in South African exports hostage over Pretoria’s hesitation to allow American chicken farmers access to Africa’s most developed economy. Trade officials from the two countries are meeting Monday in an attempt to assuage South Africa’s fears over an avian influenza outbreak in 15 states that has prompted the country to delay an earlier agreement to accept 65,000 tons of annual duty-free U.S. poultry...

South African and US officials are to hold a crucial, urgent, last-ditch meeting on Monday to try to resolve outstanding trade issues before SA risks losing some or all of its R21 billion a year duty-free access to the lucrative US market. If the issues cannot be resolved by September 30, SA could be denied – either partly or completely – the benefits of its participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) Agoa was to expire on September 30. The US Congress recently extended it for ten years but it singled out SA, making...

'Tweak the tiger’s tail for long enough and it will eventually turn around and bite you. South Africa’s disdainful attitude towards the US is becoming a living example. President Jacob Zuma’s deepening public friendship with globally ostracised Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin won’t have gone unnoticed in Washington. Similarly a continuous anti-business creep in laws proposed and enacted by Zuma’s socialist-inspired Government. On top of that, US multinationals operating in SA have been complaining about being coerced...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) regional Minister Counselor for Agricultural Affairs in Pretoria, Eric Wenberg, briefed Agbiz and members on the status of bilateral negotiations on U.S. market access and the ongoing review of South Africa’s future participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) this week. Congress mandated an “out of cycle” review for South Africa that is currently being conducted by the U.S. administration. Wenberg explained that the new AGOA legislation changed the way the Administration...

The Cabinet has unanimously endorsed the Liberia - US Trade and Investment Forum aimed at enhancing Liberia’s position in the global economy.  According to an Executive Mansion release, on Wednesday, September 9, 2015, the Cabinet gave its approval to a Liberia-driven Investment Trade Forum scheduled for September 16, 2015 in the United States of America. The Forum aims at buttressing government’s Economic Stabilization & Recovery Plan by attracting industrial investors in agriculture, agro-processing and other sectors. It will...

Tanzanians have little to celebrate about the renewal of the 15-year old African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for the other ten years due to organisational and financial constraints. The US Congress has renewed Agoa for another 10 years to allow African made goods to sail through into the lucrative American markets. The renewal however remains subject to signing by US President Barack Obama. Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture’s (TCCIA) Director of Industrial Development Adam Zuku said in Dar es Salaam yesterday...

The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has re-echoed her call to have the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) office operating independently of the Office of the President.  Kadaga explained that Parliament did not give the AGOA office money because it failed to honour its recommendations. “For the last 15 years of its existence, AGOA has realised so little from the opportunities of the project with major problems being structural,” she said. While responding to a series of questions from journalists on Wednesday,...

The East African Community is pushing for a long-term preferential trade agreement with the United States that will remove uncertainties surrounding the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The five member states have submitted their request to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) on the modalities and the time to start negotiations on the pact. According to EAC Director General of Customs and Trade Peter Kiguta, the USTR is expected to present the request at the next US Congress meeting. If accepted, the region expects to...

Surrounded by African diplomats at a White House reception in July, US President Barack Obama welcomed the renewal and 10-year extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). It has been a trade policy priority of his second term, and affects textile and apparel exports between sub-Saharan African producers and the US. The bill, passed by the US Congress on 25 June and signed into law 29 June, contains a series of measures that affect US clothing importers. These include a 10-year extension of third-country fabric provisions,...

Kenya is not likely to meet its target of Sh100 billion ($1 billion) in earnings by the end of 2017 from textile exports, analysts have said. Ecobank Capital soft commodities analyst Victoria Crandall said the country is currently producing an eighth of the cotton it requires for optimum production. Kenya produces a mere 25,000 cotton bales a year, requiring imports to meet the 200,000 demand. Renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act has given impetus to the sector, which the government says has created thousands of jobs this year...

The 14th African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum took place from 25-27 August in the Gabonese capital, Libreville. Considered the central pillar of economic relations between the US and sub-Saharan Africa, AGOA provides duty-free quota-free access to the US market for over 6000 products. Its renewal in June until 2025 had been enthusiastically welcomed by many. The Forum was attended by over 1,000 delegates from 39 AGOA-eligible countries and the US with a view to discuss the opportunities offered by the scheme, to examine the new...

South Africa and the United States are a bit closer to reaching consensus on chicken and pork imports from the US, the trade and industry ministry said on Thursday. Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies and the US Trade Representative Ambassador Michael Froman met in Libreville, Gabon on the sidelines of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) on Wednesday. The two discussed how far South Africa had progressed in meeting demands from the US, which included that the country lift restrictions of US meat imports, to continue receiving...

SA’s car exports to the US soared in value from $289m in 2001 to $1.4bn last year, making the country an African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) success story. SA could reap even more benefits from the exchange rate. This highlights what is at stake if it were to be excluded from Agoa, which Washington renewed for a decade in June. However, the US trade representative’s office is conducting an out-of-cycle review of SA’s participation, centred on the country’s draft intellectual property regulations and the access of the US beef...