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Businesses in the country have not made the most of the enormous opportunities that the United States government’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) presents, Haruna Iddrisu, Trade and Industry Minister, has said. AGOA is the US government’s trade initiative with 39 sub-Saharan African countries. There are over 7,000 products that are available under the AGOA and Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) list to enter the United States duty-free. The programme has spurred the export of processed agricultural products,...

Kenya's Export Processing Zones (EPZ) earned the East African country $543 million in the last financial year, a government official said on Tuesday. Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA) CEO Cyrille Nabutola told Xinhua in Nairobi that the zones contributed 10 percent of all exports. "The bulk of the exports consisted of textile and apparels and U. S. was the major destination," Nabutola said during the pre- budget hearings for the 2014/2015 financial year. "In fact, Kenya has now overtaken Lesotho to emerge as the largest textile...

The United States deputy assistant secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, Bisa Williams, yesterday announced that as a cornerstone of the US Africa policy, with many nations across the continent embracing democracy, they would like to work with the government of The Gambia and civil society to create a better environment for political discourse, adding that an engaged citizenry in the political process will also improve the country's economic and social development. She further stated that democracy also calls for respect for human rights...

Braving the bitter cold of New York City, the East Africa Trade Hub (EATH) attended its third Texworld USA textiles and apparel exhibition. Held January 21-23, the goal of the Texworld is to introduce international producers of textiles and apparel to buyers from around the world. As part of its ongoing Origin Africa campaign to make African producers a top option for U.S. buyers, the Trade Hub showcased samples from 15 different manufacturers from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mauritius, and Ethiopia.   Over the 3-day event, the Origin...

A new alliance has been formed with the aim of expanding trade and investment in the cotton textile and apparel sectors between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), and the African Cotton & Textile Industries Federation (ACTIF) are to work together to promote Africa as a reliable sourcing destination for international buyers. They also plan to explore opportunities to promote US trade and investment in...

Ambassador Girma Birru, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia to the United States and current co-chair of the AGOA Ambassadors' Working Group in Washington, testified on Tuesday to the United States International Trade Commission. The Commission is holding hearings on issues relating to the reauthorization of the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Ambassador Girma told the Commission that AGOA remained the central pillar of US-Africa trade and economic cooperation, and embodied "our joint aspiration that...

National chicken council representative Bill Roenigk has addressed the US International Trade Commission with concerns regarding trade acts which oppose US poultry trade in Africa. In 2000, the same year that the United States extended special duty preferences to many of the Republic of South Africa's exports under AGOA, South Africa imposed antidumping duties on US poultry. Prior to 2000, the US industry enjoyed a modest but respectable export market of approximately 55,000 metric tons annually.  Since 2000, the US poultry has been...

On January 14, Witney Schneidman testified before the USITC on the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) renewal, which is set to expire in 2015. Dear Secretary: Thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony on the four investigations related to the AGOA renewal discussions.  My short testimony will offer selective comments on three of the four investigations. Tax Incentives: As it concerns the first investigation, AGOA: Trade and Performance Overview, an overriding concern is how investments by the EU, China, Brazil and...

On Monday 30 December, President Obama made his annual determination regarding country eligibility for the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in 2014.  In addition to continuing the eligibility of the 39 current beneficiary countries, the President reinstated Mali’s eligibility for AGOA benefits.  The Republic of Mali will be a beneficiary country under AGOA effective January 1, 2014.  With the addition of Mali, 40 of the 49 potentially eligible countries in sub-Saharan Africa are now eligible to receive benefits...

Signed into law by President Clinton on May 18, 2000 and subsequently expanded, the African Growth and Opportunity Act ( AGOA) is a unilateral system of trade preferences that allows thousands of  types of goods produced in Sub-Saharan Africa  to be imported duty-free to the United States. AGOA is widely perceived to be a success, albeit a limited one. From 2001 to 2011, the aggregate amount of exports from Africa to the United States under AGOA increased from $8 billion to $54 billion; the number of countries participating grew...

Today, a group of bipartisan leaders from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to the U.S. Comptroller General requesting a study to examine the effectiveness of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in an effort to better increase investment, trade and job growth between African countries and the United States. The landmark AGOA legislation, passed in 2000, provides economic opportunities to countries that...

South Sudan president Salva Kiir has urged domestic and foreign investors to take up available investment opportunities, regardless of the existing institutional weakness and challenges of governance and insecurity in the country. "South Sudan is ready and open to business. God has blessed us and endowed our young country with vast resources, in terms of fertile lands, forests, water resources, mineral and petroleum resources among others," Kiir said at a cocktail party organised at the end of a two-day investment conference. "Those who...

At first glance Burundi and Ethiopia look like total opposites. Burundi is the smallest country in Africa while Ethiopia is one of the largest. But the two countries have a lot more in common than you might think. Agriculture is the dominant economic sector and both produce high quality specialty coffees. Burundi and Ethiopia are also land locked and face challenges in transporting goods across borders to trade regionally and internationally. Maximizing their potential for export trade is another area that binds these East African nations...