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"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...

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to allow African countries to access the US market without paying duty will be "renewed and improved," US President Barack Obama says during his visit to Senegal."AGOA will end in two years time. But I will seek for modalities to renew and improve the law to regenerate more trade and employment opportunities," the US president told a joint press conference with his Senegalese counterpart Macky Sall. He said the US will work more in the commercial sector with the West Africa region, noting that...

Ethiopia is "an important partner" of the United States in the East Africa region and one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, a senior State Department official told a US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee June 20. Donald Yamamoto, the acting assistant secretary of state for African affairs and a former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia, told the lawmakers that the Ethiopian economy has been growing by double-digit percentages over the last five years. However, he cautioned that Ethiopia-U.S. business relationships...

South Africa regards the extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and its inclusion in the scheme, as vital for its future trade with the US, and will be lobbying hard for a 15-20 year rollover, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said on Wednesday. Mr Davies said South Africa would be lobbying for the extension both during this week’s visit by US President Barack Obama and in Washington later this year.He said he believed the act, which grants duty free access of specific products from Africa into the US market, had...

AGOA has benefitted South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa enormously since its introduction in 2000. The imminent arrival of US president, Barack Obama, on a state visit to South Africa is a perfect opportunity for government to discuss its extension when it expires in 2015. South African government and business leaders need to maximise the effectiveness of their lobbying in a concerted effort that will result in the U.S. government’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) being extended when it expires in 2015. This is the view of...

The US remains one of South Africa's most important economic partners and President Barack Obama will soon be here as part of his three-stop African tour. One of the official objectives of the visit will be to improve Africa's economic growth and promote international trade. This could cover any number of issues and will be a fairly wide-ranging discussion. What is not clear is where the two governments’ very different trade-policy trajectories will converge. South Africa shows little appetite for bilateral engagement on trade and...

Today, US President Barack Obama begins a weeklong trip to Africa where he will visit Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. His mission, according to US officials, is to push US investment and help strengthen Africa's democratic institutions. US-Africa relations under Obama have been relatively low-key. This will be only the president’s second visit to the continent, and while the likes of Brazil, India and China have been increasingly active in Africa over the past few years, US engagement has been notably restrained. We took the...

In the face of a decline in value of capital investment in the garment and textile industry for the second consecutive year, Kenya is seeking an at least 10-year extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) that is scheduled to expire on September 30, 2015. Kenya is also seeking an extension of the third-country fabric rule of origin for the entire period of AGOA extension. Representatives of the Government of Kenya and the African Cotton & Textiles Industries Federation (ACTIF) participated in an AGOA strategy meeting...

South Africa plans to use the upcoming visit of US President Barack Obama to reinforce its position that the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) should be extended for a sustained period beyond its September 30, 2015, expiry date and that South Africa should remain a beneficiary, despite its relative development when compared with other beneficiaries. However, given that the power to extend Agoa lies not with the Obama administration, but with Congress, South African officials will also seek to use the networking opportunities...