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Time is running out to renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act. If the renewal process is delayed to AGOA’s expiration date of September 30 of this year, it will undermine much of what the legislation has achieved, especially in the apparel sector. Apparel and footwear companies are the largest supporters of the several hundred thousand direct jobs that AGOA has created in Africa—not to mention the many more indirect jobs. Though, with the uncertainty surrounding the renewal of AGOA as well as the now-crunched timeline, these...

President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday said South Africa's delegation to Washington DC for the US-Africa Leaders' Summit, held in August last year, was essential for drawing investment into Africa.   The summit had focused on trade, investment, development, peace and regional stability.   President Zuma said the summit was also beneficial for the future generation of leaders, as it dealt with matters of good governance, youth development and service delivery.   The President said this in written replies to Parliamentary questions....

The value of Kenya's exports to United States increased by nearly a third in the first 11 months of 2014, rendering the US her second most important market after Uganda. Latest official data show the US bought goods worth Sh35.53 billion by November, 28.5 per cent higher than the Sh27.64 billion raked in over a similar period in 2013. The US is catching up fast with Uganda, the biggest buyer of Kenyan goods, but whose purchases over the period slumped by 11.4 per cent to Sh43.31 billion, from Sh48.87 billion in the previous year. USA has...

Ethiopia's Ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Girma Birru, has welcomed the decision of the US Department of Commerce to organize a "Business Development Conference and Trade Mission" to 8 African countries in September 2015". He said the Trade Mission would offer a unique opportunity to explore, first-hand, the vast business and investment opportunities that exist in Africa in the various areas. Ambassador Girma noted the recent economic performance of the East African region has been remarkable by international standards. The...

“We’re running out of time,” moderator Witney Schneidman, nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution, exclaimed as he opened the January 28 panel discussion at last week’s Africa Policy Breakfast entitled AGOA Today and Beyond: The Future of the US-Africa Commercial Relationship.  While AGOA technically expires this September, for many African companies exporting apparel to the United States there is less than two months left in the nine month U.S. supply cycle.  For U.S. importers, the fact that AGOA is not yet...

For the apparel and footwear industry, timing is everything. Our executives plan production and place orders months, and sometimes years, in advance so goods will make it to stores in time for the next season. Understanding and managing long lead times are critical. For our supply chains, “seamless” processes require that decisions be set months in advance. Unfortunately, when it comes to legislation, Washington’s definition of “seamless” does not line up. Case in point – the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Policy...

The South African Poultry Association (Sapa) is trying to find common ground with US poultry exporters on how much US poultry should be allowed into the country. A key issue for local poultry producers is to avoid US poultry imports from harming the local industry and jeopardising South Africa’s inclusion in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). The association’s chief executive, Kevin Lovell, said yesterday that the industry had already made an offer to its US trade counterparts and was waiting for some feedback from...

Botswana exports to the United States under the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) increased by over 50 percent between January and November 2014.  According to the statistics from US Department of Commerce, exports to US under AGOA increased 53 percent from $5.5 million (P52 million) to $8.5 million (P80 million) in the first 11 months of the year, mainly on the back of increase in textile and apparel. In the period, total exports to the US, which were dominated by mostly diamonds, increased 16 percent from $246.3 million to...

Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies has met with US Trade Representative Michael Froman as part of a stepped up effort to resolve a dispute involving US chicken imports into the local market and ensure South Africa’s continued participation in the preferential trade scheme, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). The meeting took place on the margins of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, which concluded on Saturday in Davos, Switzerland. Davies told Business Report that the process to tackle the issue had now reached...

Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware has issued a strong warning to South Africa: Drop your "unfair" duties on U.S. poultry or prepare to see your trade benefits disappear. Since 2000, the Republic of South Africa has subjected U.S. bone-in poultry to "anti-dumping" duties, penalties that countries impose on imports they believe are priced suspiciously low. The duties have effectively blocked U.S. poultry producers from a growing market, costing the industry millions. South African officials say their policy is consistent with World Trade...

Bilateral trade in agricultural products between Zambia and the United States dropped significantly in 2014, the Times of Zambia reported on Friday. Agricultural trade between the two countries dropped to 504,000 U.S. dollars from 732,000 dollars representing a 32 percent reduction, the paper said, quoting a report released by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The statement said the two countries had failed to utilize the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) which was a platform to encourage trade between Africa and the U.S.. According to...

TO TAKE CERTAIN ACTIONS UNDER THE AFRICAN GROWTH AND OPPORTUNITY ACT AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION 1. In Proclamation 8921 of December 20, 2012, I determined that the Republic of Guinea-Bissau (Guinea-Bissau) was not making continual progress in meeting the requirements described in section 506A(a)(1) of the Trade Act of 1974 (the 1974 Act) (19 U.S.C. 2466a(a)(1)), as added by section 111(a) of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (title I of Public Law 106-200) (AGOA). Thus,...

The government of the Republic of The Gambia said it congratulated the government of The United States of America for the removal of The Gambia from the list of eligible sub-Saharan African countries under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). In a statement Saturday evening, reacting to a recent US decision on The Gambia, the government said "The Gambia has never benefitted from the Act in the first place since a US Presidential Proclamation designated the country as a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country on March 28...

South Africa stands to lose billions of rands if a prominent US senator keeps his promise to do "everything in his power" to ensure that South Africa does not continue to benefit from the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act when the US Senate writes a new version next year. Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from the poultry-producing state of Delaware, told Sunday Times this week that he would demand that anti-dumping measures on poultry products be scrapped by South Africa if the country wished to keep benefiting from the act. South Africa's...

The White House announced on Tuesday that South Sudan (and Gambia) have been removed from the list of sub-Saharan African countries enjoying special trade status with the United States. According to a proclamation signed by US president Barack Obama, he has determined that South Sudan along with Gambia, "are not making continual progress in meeting the requirements" under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). There were no specifics on the set of requirements not met by both countries. "Accordingly, I have decided to terminate...

Trade benefits allowed to South Africa under the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act could be under threat if the country does not lift import taxes on U.S. poultry. Two U.S. senators have written to South African President Zuma asking him to open up the market to U.S. companies, saying that if no progress is made the extension of duty preferences given to South Africa under the African Growth and Opportunity Act or AGOA would be reconsidered. It’s a multi-billion dollar poultry industry in the U.S., but for the last 14 years duties...

Despite continued US government efforts to open South Africa to U.S. pork exports, the market remains closed. While key U.S. competitors such as Canada and the European Union (EU) have access to this important and growing market, the U.S. remains on the outside looking in. South Africa blocks U.S. pork exports based on non-science-based barriers, including ones related to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), pseudorabies (PRV) and trichinae. The U.S. government and the U.S. pork industry have in recent years provided a...

The AGOA (Title I of the Trade and Development Act of 2000, Public Law 106-200, as amended provides preferential tariff treatment for imports of certain textile and apparel products of beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries. The textile and apparel trade benefits under AGOA are available to imports of eligible products from countries that the President designates as “beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries,” provided that these countries: (1) Have adopted an effective visa system and related procedures to prevent unlawful...

Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini has challenged the country’s workers federations to do their part by standing up and be counted through ‘making a lot of noise’ to the USA urging them to restore the country’s AGOA status before December 31. He said government has done its part in making sure that the country meets the five benchmarks that were set by the Americans for the country to be readmitted to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) by first speedily bringing the Industrial Relations Bill to Parliament that has already...

The Association of Meat Importers and Exporters of SA (Amie) is calling on the government to urgently drop antidumping duties on US poultry as fears grow that SA might be excluded from trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). Amie said on Thursday that SA needed the trade benefits of Agoa, and allowing US chicken imports fair and reasonable access to the local market would keep prices in check. According to US media reports this week, senator Chris Coons, the chairman of the African affairs subcommittee of the...

U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) cautioned South African President Jacob Zuma that continued refusal to eliminate unfair duties on U.S. poultry could jeopardize South Africa’s continued eligibility for trade benefits available under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in a letter sent Tuesday night. Congress will consider reauthorization of AGOA in 2015. “The antidumping duties South Africa has levied on U.S. poultry have been in place for fourteen years, effectively blocking our companies from...

It may seem counter-intuitive to imagine that Africa could make contractual demands on the United States. Yet, there is evidence that in recent times Africa has become more assertive with a newfound confidence. In fact, it appears the continent is at a point in history where it no longer needs the begging bowl whenever its leaders visit Western capitals.  This sense of confidence was on full display when Africa’s leaders converged on Washington DC for the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in August 2014. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta,...

The US government's first trade representative for Africa talks to The Africa Report about the need for lobbyists in Washington's politics, how African countries are shaping their images and the ways that dodgy players cheat their clients. Rosa Whitaker: We have a situation where support for Africa is broad but not deep. Goodwill towards Africa is on an upward trajectory, but policy is on a downward trajectory. We've had AGOA [the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act], Power Africa, so now what? I'm a third-generation Washingtonian, I've...