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The trade balance between Ghana and the United States fell to $484.7 million in the first eight months of 2013, official US data has shown. This is compared to $670.8 million trade balance both countries recorded during the same period (January-August) in 2012, according to the US Department of Commerce. The reduction was due low American exports and a rise in Ghanaian exports during the period. The US exported goods worth $747.5 million during the 2013 period to Ghana compared to what it did $901.7 million in 2012. The US Commerce...

Ethiopia's Ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Girma Birru, has chaired a meeting of the African Ambassadors AGOA Group, to discuss President Obama's Power Africa, his initiative to double access to power in sub-Saharan Africa. Ambassador Girma, the Co-Chair of the AGOA Group, underlined the importance of the initiative considering more than two-thirds of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is currently without electricity, and more than 85 % of those living in rural areas lack access to power. He noted that the US has now pledged...

The United States Mission in Ghana is putting finishing touches to a pact with local fruit processing company to start exporting fresh cuts to the US market. Blue Skies, which already exports to the European Union, has a 'low hanging fruit' scenario to start exporting cut fresh fruits such as pineapples, mangoes and papaya to United States under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which Ghana is yet to take full advantage of. Although the provision has been available post-2000 under which Ghana and 38 other African countries can...

US industry groups active in the textiles and apparel sectors have made a plea for the US government to extend the provisions of the American Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), in terms of which African states including SA are given preferential access to US markets. The groups said Agoa had to be renewed as soon as possible, warning that any delay into 2015 would result in the loss of trade and jobs in both African and US markets. Agoa was signed into law in 2000 and originally covered the eight-year period from October 2000 to September...

Over two years ago at the AGOA forum in Zambia, then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton committed the Obama administration to a "seamless renewal" of AGOA, the cornerstone of the U.S.-African commercial relationship. However, AGOA's extension has become needlessly protracted and increasingly uncertain, notwithstanding the current political dysfunction in Washington. To ensure that AGOA does not expire on September 31, 2015, as currently scheduled, the administration and Congress should work together to extend the legislation...

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) plays a vital role in the development and support of a competitive US-African textile and apparel trade partnership, a critical step to developing a broader reciprocal commercial relationship with AGOA countries. AGOA has created more than 300,000 direct jobs in Africa, and AGOA imports are important for the millions of American workers in apparel retailing, manufacturing and importing companies. Originally enacted in 2000, AGOA has enjoyed widespread bipartisan support and has been modified...

Barack Obama’s election five years ago sparked audacious hopes in people around the globe — but nowhere did it stoke such outsized expectations as in Africa, where his appearance at Nelson Mandela’s memorial Tuesday drew some of the event’s biggest cheers. Many Africans thought the election of the first African-American president of the United States would herald a new era of U.S. relations with the continent, one marked by intensified economic ties, high-level diplomatic interaction and visits by the newly installed chief executive...

The South African chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham South Africa) has joined in the lobbying for South Africa to be included in the next round of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), which is set to expire in 2015. There have been talks in Washington as to whether South Africa should be included in the next round of Agoa should its extension be approved by Congress. South Africa’s continued participation is being questioned, as it is no longer deemed a poor country but a middle-income economy. President of...

The United States has set new limits on duty and quota-free imports of apparel articles from sub-Saharan African countries under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).  For apparel articles wholly assembled in one or more beneficiary sub-Saharan African country from regional and third-country fabric, the limit is now set at 1,784,195,681 square metres equivalent (SME) for fiscal 2014, which runs from 1 October 2013 to 30 September 2014. Of this amount, 892,097,841 SME is available to apparel articles imported under the special...

Side by side with critical investment drivers such as competitiveness, political stability, transparency of the regulatory environment and ease of doing business, market size and access remains a huge investment determinant. Following the country’s re-entry into the global economic arena, South Africa has over the past 19 years forged some plausible mutually beneficial trade agreements with various countries and regional economic blocs around the world. Then came the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), a US unilateral trade...

The American Chamber of  Commerce in Zambia is planning to partner with the Zambian business community to lobby for extension of the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) which expires in 2015. Chamber executive director John Payne said AGOA was important for the strengthening of business engagements for both  Zambia and  the United States (US) hence,  the need to extend it. Mr Payne said the organisation would use the meeting with the incoming US ambassador to Zambia as an opportunity to push for the extension of...

DHL Express, the world's leading courier and express company, believes that trade between the United States of America and Sub-Saharan Africa is set for continued growth, as both regions build upon the recent U.S. Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) to achieve sustainable development through increased trade and investment. "We have already seen this increased trade in specific countries on the continent, as they take advantage of preferential trade agreements and state-led policy change to increase exports and imports with the U.S.," says...

A full agenda of dialogues with US Congress, US business and the US administration has been prepared for South Africa's Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies as his department starts South Africa's lobbying effort for the seamless renewal of the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA). Minister Davies and his senior aides traveled to the US last week to cajole the US congress and other thought leaders of the importance of US - Africa economic relations as well as to argue South Africa's case for an unfettered renewal of AGOA. Davies'...

Government's initiative to engage the Zambia Association of Manufacturers (ZAM) and other stakeholders to review the country's performance under the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) duty-free export market, underscores the importance it attaches to the development of the manufacturing industry. Its concern emanates from Zambia's failure to export products to the lucrative US market despite the numerous incentives offered under the AGOA facility. This comes on the heels of a recent report by the Hub Digest, a publication of a US...

Sam and Sara (Omoluabi) Garment Factory has hinted of plans to employ about 3,000 workers from the textile and garment industry. Disclosing this to The Nation, the Managing Director of the company, Mrs. Folake Oyemade, said going by the company’s expansion plan, about 3, 000 workers are expected to join its workforce, adding that this is in line with the government transformation agenda. She commended the Osun State government and Bank of Industry for their support in driving the initiative and creating an enabling environment for the...

With the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) set to expire in September 2015, African and US representatives have begun to explore how Washington can improve and renew the 13-year old legislation so that it is more compatible with the changing economic landscape in Africa. AGOA provides about 6500 African products with preferential quota and duty-free access to the US market. The bill expands upon the US Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), a set of formal exceptions from the WTO’s most-favoured nation (MFN) principle that...

In furtherance of its commitment to develop local productive capacity and encourage export of Nigerian made products, the Bank of Industry (BoI) has partnered the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), on free training of local producers on the specifics of regulatory requirements for exports to America under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). AGOA was signed into law on May 18, 2000 as Title 1 of The Trade and Development Act of 2000. The Act offers tangible incentives for African countries to...

Government has pledged to revive the local textile industry to enable it compete favourably on the United States (US) export market under the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA). The move follows Zambia’s failure to penetrate the duty-free AGOA market which has been attributted to the country’s collapsed garments industry. Commerce, Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Miles Sampa said Government was greatly concerned about the situation which had been caused by the underperforming local textile industry. Mr Sampa said Government...

The Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry welcomed the positive outlook for Foreign Direct Investment in South Africa and the positive approach to the growing trade between South Africa and the United States of America. The multiparty committee is in total agreement that the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has assisted in growing trade between the two countries. Committee Chairperson Ms Joanmariae Fubbssaid that, while many would argue that South Africa and other countries in Africa are the primary beneficiaries of AGOA, what...

The Ministry of Trade, through the Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF), is to provide financial support to 25 selected indigenous businesses as part of efforts to grow local enterprises.The selected businesses will be drawn from the pharmaceutical, garment and apparel, handicrafts, agribusiness and poultry sub-sectors. The sector minister, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, said support to the identified sub-sectors is part of a deliberate effort to boost production and enable the country to take advantage of the African Growth and...

Many African countries, including Tanzania, are likely to miss the opportunity of enhancing their trade relations with the US through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which is coming to an end in 2015. Therefore, urgent measures are crucial by African governments to engage the US government to put in place provisions and conditions that allow countries like Tanzania to diversify their exports besides their usual oil and textile industries. So far, the AGOA list excludes some of the key export products with great market...