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Transcript of foreign press center briefing with Florie Liser, Assistant USTR for Africa in the Office of the USTR; Cynthia Akuetteh, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, John Anderson, Acting Assistant Secretary for Market Access and Compliance, US Dept Commerce. TOPIC: “PREVIEW OF THE 2013 AFRICAN GROWTH AND OPPORTUNITY ACT (AGOA) FORUM” Wednesday, 31 July 2013, Washington Foreign Press Center, Washington, D.C.    MODERATOR: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center and to our...

The Ethiopian Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the US Embassy and the African Union Trade and Industry Commission have announced (Monday, July 29) that preparations are now finalized to host the 2013 African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum which will be held in two weeks time. According to the organizers registration of participants has now been concluded. The Ministry of Trade's Corporate Communication Directorate Director, Amakele Yimam, said "The Forum will be a good opportunity for Ethiopia to promote its...

"Sub-Saharan Africa is a region of extraordinary opportunity for growth and economic development," President Obama said in November 2012, with the launch of a US initiative to encourage American businesses to increase trade in African nations. The primary goal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is to help expand the volume and diversity of US trade with sub-Saharan Africa. “The economies of sub-Saharan Africa are among the world’s fastest-growing, and this economic expansion — partly a result of our long-standing...

Congress should renew trade preferences with sub-Saharan Africa for at least 15 years, a group of African ambassadors said in a report on Wednesday. The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) expires in 2015, but African leaders and U.S. lawmakers are already working on its renewal. The report recommends increasing U.S. investments on the continent and expanding trade preferences for African textile and apparel exports. “This will have a lot of weight, I can assure you,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), the chairman of the Foreign...

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), enacted in May 2001, is a signature US trade initiative that provides Sub Saharan African Countries with a most liberal access to the US market. Much progress has been made under the Act over the last thirteen years. Since 2000, exports under AGOA have increased more than 500 percent, from $8.15 billion in 2001 to $53.8 billion in 2011. Though about 90 percent of these exports have come from the oil and gas sector, non-oil and gas exports have also grown by 275 percent, from $1.2 billion to...

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), enacted in 2000, allows 39 eligible African countries to export most products duty-free to the United States. The 39 African countries are: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South...

Ghana has so far in 2013 exported goods and products worth $137 million to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), new data shows. The value of the goods exported between January and May this year were higher compared to the same time period in 2012. The US imported goods valued at $117.5 million from Ghana in the first five months of 2012 under the AGOA initiative, according to the data issued by the US International Trade Commission (USITC) of the US Department of Commerce. Goods that were sent from Ghana...

Botswana exported textiles worth US$1.74 million (P14.9 million) under the United States' African Growth and Opportunities Act in the first three months of the year, representing a drop from US$4.1 million(P35 million) over the same period last year, official data shows. The data, compiled by the US Department of Commerce and released recently by the Southern Africa Trade Hub, also pegs local AGOA textile exports for 2012 at US$10.4 million (P88.8 million). The figure is a 31 percent fall from the US$15 million (P128.1 million) recorded in...

In many respects, President Obama's second trip to Sub-Saharan Africa is significant. For the past four years, the president has faced a barrage of criticisms for literally ignoring Africa. In Washington for example, all leading think tanks that have a focus on Africa have expressed dismay at the continued marginalisation of Africa in U.S. foreign policy even when other nations have heightened interest. Obama has been seen as one with very limited interest in Africa and so the fact that he did spend a week in Africa at least shows that...

South Africa's motor industry is raking in billions of rands in export revenue from the US, boosted by duty free access under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The act, which has been in place since 2000, is due to expire in 2015. On his recent visit to Africa, US President Barack Obama said he would support the extension of Agoa, which allows a range of products from Africa to enter the world’s largest economy duty free. Local motor manufacturers have benefited “massively” from Agoa, according to Eckart Naumann, an...

President Obama on July 1 launched a major trade partnership between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa aimed at expanding trade. Obama told a meeting of 22 chief executive officers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that "Trade Africa" is designed to expand trade and economic ties between Africa and the United States and global markets. "Today, I'm announcing a new initiative -- Trade Africa -- to boost trade with and within Africa, starting with the East African Community," Obama said at the business roundtable. The initiative aims to...

US President Barack Obama on Sunday night used the keynote address of his visit to the University of Cape Town to set out a vision for a new partnership with Africa that would include, in the immediate term, a large US investment in electricity generation in sub-Saharan Africa and a summit of all African leaders with his government next year. While extremely positive about Africa’s opportunities, Mr Obama was also frank about the continent’s problems, saying that unless Africans could reduce corruption, build genuine democracy and work...

As democracies that stand for human rights, South Africa and the US should speak with one voice on international issues, says US President Barack Obama. While South Africa and the US may share a passion for protecting human rights, the countries are, however, poles apart when it comes to tackling global challenges. An example close to home is differences in the approach of the US and South Africa to the situation in Zimbabwe — while the US prefers sanctions, South Africa has opted for mediation. On Cuba, Syria, Libya and the Congo the...