News Search
"Extend Agoa benefits" say Experts
Mozambique, having emerged from years of instability as a result of a protracted civil war in the 1980s and early 1990s, has started making significant progress in recent years. This coincided with a gradual liberalisation of the economy, which is now attracting renewed interest from foreign investors. Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows have been recorded in a number of sectors, including the financial sector, tourism, construction and manufacturing sectors. However, the country has thus far largely failed to penetrate the largest...
Swaziland: New Labour Legislation Passed to Retain AGOA
A few influential Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress are jointly urging that a provision in the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) trade law, crucial to Kenya, be extended for three years beyond its scheduled expiration in September.Under a new proposal known as the Agoa Acceleration Bill, Kenya and other eligible African countries could continue using Asian-made fabrics in their clothing exports to the US until 2007.Kenya's representatives in Washington are lobbying hard for this extension because the country still produces...
Renewing Growth and Opportunity for Africa
The World Bank called yesterday for an extension of the clothing preferences in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). In their discussion paper on the effects of preferential access to the US market under Agoa, World Bank economists Paul Brenton and Takako Ikezuki appealed for the benefits of Agoa to be extended or made permanent.For many sectors, it is likely the current temporary and relatively short statutory period of Agoa constrains a significant investment response.SA and Mauritius were cited as examples of Agoa beneficiaries...
World Bank Calls for Extension of AGOA Clothing Preferences
The strength of the rand has wiped out some of the benefits of the European Union (EU) free-trade agreement, a South African textile federation has said.The strong rand has turned the local textile and clothing industry on its head, with exports to the US market also down sharply.There have also been massive job losses due to declining exports and an influx of cheap imports .The Textile Federation (Texfed), an umbrella body of South African textile associations , said 25000 jobs were lost in the industry last year.While explaining the slump...
AGOA 3 Action Committee Hails Agreement On H.R. 4103
Export Processing Zones have developed into one of the few success stories in local manufacturing, and nowhere is this more visible than in the manufacture of apparel for export to the American market.About 40 factories - riding on the back of the tariff-free market access accorded by a special US trade law - have spawned a $164-million industry and created over 30,000 jobs.But beyond the gloss of impressive figures, there is another not-so-rosy side to the Agoa story in Kenya. It is one of poor quality jobs, the dominance by foreign...
Clothing, Textile Exports to US, EU Hurt By SA Rand
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) benefits should be extended over a much longer period, if not made permanent, and the special liberal rules of origin for clothing products be extended considerably beyond 2004, World Bank economists Paul Brenton and Takako Ikezuki recommend in a recent working paper. According to them, the ability to export clothing products under preferences with liberal rules of origin is the key factor currently determining whether Agoa has a significant impact on non-oil exporting African countries. At...
Bipartisan Coalition Unveils New AGOA III Legislation
Inspite of the assurances by government officials to the contrary, there are strong indications that Nigeria is still far from qualifying for the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) about four years after the programme started to assist exports from Africa.AGOA was signed into law on May 18, 2000 by then US president Bill Clinton as Title 1 of The Trade and Development Act of 2000 to offer tangible incentives to African countries to continue their efforts at opening up their economies and build free markets.Dependable sources close to...
Kenya: Let Locals Reap AGOA Gains
With strong leadership from Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) and President Bill Clinton, Congress took a big step toward unlocking Africa's economic potential four years ago, with the enactment of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). At the time, Congressman Rangel predicted that it would "represent substantial trade benefits for Africa ... investment in Africa, less poverty, higher disposable incomes, and the ability to become a full partner in the global economy." By 2004, AGOA had fulfilled much of its...
Kenyan Minister Confirms they are seeking AGOA Extension
On April 1, 2004 a broad bipartisan coalition held a press conference in the Capitol to unveil new AGOA III legislation, titled the AGOA Acceleration Act.The legislation is championed by Representatives Bill Thomas, (R-CA), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Phil Crane (R-IL), Charles B. Rangel (D-NY), Ed Royce (R-CA), William Jefferson (D-LA), Amo Houghton (R-NY), Donald Payne (D-NJ) and Richard Neal (D-MA).The AGOA Acceleration Act, HR 4103, is closely modeled after the AGOA III Act but specifically designed to smoothly pass the Congress in quick...
Nigeria Can't Get Apparel Visa Status Four Years Into Agoa
"The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act Acceleration Act 2004, H.R. 4103, represents a major milestone in efforts to fight poverty and instability in Africa and help grow the region's reforming economies as markets for US goods," Rosa Whitaker, co-chair of the AGOA 3 action committee, said.Fellow co-chair Jack Kemp, founder of Empower America, was equally upbeat. "Fighting poverty and expanding markets for Africa helps create new opportunities for Americans - it's a win-win for all."The bipartisan initiative's key architects are Rep. Bill...
Crisis in Swazi Textile Industry
Despite strong bipartisan support for the extension of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), there is growing angst among many African apparel producers about whether the legislation will be approved before October. The date is key, as the vital ‘third country’ textile provision is set to expire on September 30, 2004.The provision allows least-developed country-beneficiaries under Agoa, as well as Botswana and Namibia, to source textiles from non-African and non-US sources. This enables them to deal with the reality of...
Ugandan President Writes to Bush Over AGOA
Sierra Leone's Information and Broadcasting Minister, Prof. Septimus Kaikai, has called on Sierra Leoneans to use the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to market locally made textiles and garments in the United States."The use of AGOA can help to fight poverty, create job opportunities, elevate wages for Sierra Leoneans and improve the country's economy." The minister made these disclosure at a special press conferences on 'Sierra Leone's Acquisition of the AGOA Textile and Garments Visa' held on Monday 5th April 2004.The Minister of...
Sierra Leone: Use AGOA to Market Country
The Government is involved in initiatives to seek an extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), Trade and Industry Minister Dr Mukhisa Kituyi has disclosed.Kituyi was responding a request for a ministerial statement by Kaiti MP Gideon Ndambuki (Kanu). The member has asked what the Government was doing to beat the September 31 deadline.Ndambuki said Kenya was threatened with the risk of being struck off from Agoa if it failed to meet the September 31 deadline.The legislator also sought to have the House informed on what the...
Uganda: Demand for Organic Exports Soars in US
Following the first full year of the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) programme in 2001, Sub- Saharan African producers exported additional goods worth $8b to the United States.This was said by Theodore Nkodo, the vice-president of the African Development Bank's operations in the north, east and south.Nkodo said the growth represented a 62% increase over the previous year.He said this at a recently concluded Africa conference on food security at Munyonyo.Nkodo said as a result of AGOA, USA now trades more with Africa than former Eastern...
Figures Show AGOA Has Benefited South Africa
South Africa's citrus fruit exports have boomed under the preferential access that many products have been granted under America's African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). SA has become the largest foreign supplier of fresh oranges to the US markets, which recorded imports of the fruit valued at almost $50m last year. There are still those who may doubt the extent of benefits presented by Agoa, which eliminated import tariffs on about 7000 goods from SA and other African countries. In a recent South African Institute of International...
The Future of the (South African) Orange Looks Rosy
Ugandan organic exports have taken US markets by storm, Susan Muhwezi, the special presidential assistant on the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) has said.Muhwezi said this in a presentation read for her by the AGOA-Uganda commercial officer, Hashim Wasswa at the International Conference Centre."Reports from those who went for the Natural Foods Expo in Washington recently reveal that they have been bombarded by enquiries about their products. Some are already doing business in the US albeit with some difficulties," she said.Some of the...
Sub-Saharan Africa Earns $8b From AGOA
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has written to United States President George Bush requesting that countries benefiting from the AGOA continue importing raw materials to make fabrics for the American market.Under the Act, beneficiary countries were allowed to import raw materials called 'third party fabrics' up to this November.Opening an All Africa on Food Security and Nutrition conference at the Speke Resort Munyonyo, Museveni said Uganda needed the provision extended for some years.Museveni was flanked by presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of...
West African Stakeholders Share Experiences On AGOA
Garment makers in Swaziland were laying off workers because delays in renewing a trade deal with the US were threatening the kingdom's largest industry, labour union officials said this week.Swaziland enjoys trade benefits with the US under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), but a key provision allowing certain African countries to import cheap fabric to process for sale is due to expire this year.Industry officials in Swaziland said firms were already cutting workforces because there had been no confirmation the US would extend...
Namibia's Clothing Sector its main AGOA Beneficiary
Swaziland's flourishing textile industry is experiencing a crisis, caused by delays in US legislation that would extend a deadline in the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), and enable Swazi exports to continue entering the market duty-free."Already, about one thousand garments workers out of 28,000 employed nationally have lost their jobs because of the uncertainty over AGOA. Each worker supports 10 dependants," said Sipho Mamba, Secretary-General of the Swaziland Manufacturing and Allied Workers Union.According to the Ministry of...
Political Developments Unlikely to Jeopardise US-Sacu Trade Deal
Delays in the extension of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) by the US have caused a crisis in the Swazi textile industry. According to Sipho Mamba, Secretary-General of the Swaziland Manufacturing and Allied Workers Union, many jobs are being lost due to the uncertainty over AGOA. “Already about one thousand garments workers out of 28,000 employed nationally have lost their jobs because of the uncertainty over AGOA. Each worker supports 10 dependants," he said. Almost a quarter of Swaziland’s population are either directly...
Swaziland: Textile Industry Under Threat Over AGOA Rule
Agriculture exports from SA to the US rose 35% last year despite the negative effects of the strong rand, contradicting claims that the US's African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) did not benefit South African farmers.Critics have said that duty-free access under Agoa has "done nothing" to boost sales of African farm produce. African farmers, they say, are still struggling against import quotas and agricultural subsidies in the US.Subsidies to US farmers about 180bn over 10 years along with nontariff barriers such as food safety...
Despite AGOA, Mozambique Battles to Penetrate US Market
Strong bipartisan support for the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) is likely to be transposed on to the planned free-trade agreement (FTA) between the US and the five-country Southern African Customs Union (Sacu), a senior embassy official asserted yesterday.The official was responding to questions on whether rising anti-FTA sentiments in the US, which are being expressed by Democratic Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry in particular, could affect the passage of the trade deal, anticipated for conclusion by December.His views...
AGOA: Africa Must Produce Its Own Cotton Fabric Industry
Namibia’s clothing sector has been the country’s main beneficiary of preferential access to the US market brought about by AGOA. This is according to data from the United States International Trade Commission (USITC). Since 2000, the year prior to trade benefits materialising under AGOA, Namibia’s total exports to the U.S. have grown three-fold from US$ 42mn to just over US$ 123mn in 2003. Whereas the country exported virtually no clothing (or textiles) to the US initially, exports of knitwear (HS61) now form that country’s single...
Zambia's AGOA Exports to Rise - US Envoy
Passage of an expanded African Growth and Opportunity Act is extremely timely and should be concluded by Congress before September 30, says Senator Dick Lugar (Republican of Indiana), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.Failure to pass the bill, known as AGOA III, could jeopardize economic gains made by Africans under the legislation first passed in May 2000, the senator said.Lugar voiced concern over legislative stalling on his bill, S. 1900, "The United States-Africa Partnership Act of 2003," during a March 25 hearing of the...
Ugandan President: I Sacked 'Agoa Girls'
According to local newspaper "The Herald", Zimbabwe's chances of participating in the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) look promising as the country has met some preconditions required for its qualification into the American trade initiative.Local trade lobby groups and the Ministry of Industry and International Trade have since embarked on seminars with business and the United States embassy in readiness for the possible inclusion.During a seminar held in the city yesterday, US Embassy Economic and Commercial Chief, Mr William...
Zimbabwe: Ready for AGOA?
United States ambassador to Zambia Martin Brennan says Zambia's export earnings under the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) would rise significantly once the process of horticultural pest risk assessments is completed.Mr Brennan said the rapid growth of the AGOA exports in the recent past indicated the scale of the opportunities the legislation had created for Zambia.The ambassador was speaking in Lusaka yesterday at the opening of the Zambia handicrafts market sixth seminar organised under the auspices of the Southern Africa Global...
SA "has not used AGOA to best advantage"
Kenya exported textiles worth more than Sh11.6 billion to the United States last year as a result of the African Growth Opportunity Act (Agoa).Trade minister Mukhisa Kituyi said the Act, enacted by the US in 2000, had seen Kenyan textile and apparel exports increase to more than $150 million last year.In a speech read by internal trade director Seth Otieno during the opening of the Indian textile buyer/seller meeting at the Hilton hotel, Dr Kituyi said Agoa will offer certain Kenyan goods duty and quota free access to the US market until...
AGOA Adviser Whitaker Defends Business Deal With Uganda
President Yoweri has announced he ordered the sacking of about 200 girls working at Tri-Star Apparels factory in Bugolobi.Museveni said he feared their strike would send the wrong signals to potential investors."I sacked those girls because of indiscipline and their action would have scared off investors who had plans of setting up businesses here. They would have thought that the labour force in Uganda is undisciplined," he said on Sunday at the inauguration of the district women and youth councils.Tri-Star Apparels exports garments to the...
US Senate Leader Pleads for Passage of Third Africa Trade Bill
US Assistant Trade Representative in charge of Africa, FLORIZELLE LISER, was recently in Mombasa to attend trade talks aimed at breaking the deadlock at the WTO since the failed Ministerial Conference in Cancun last year. VITALIS OMONDI spoke to her on the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) Why is the sourcing of raw materials an issue in Agoa if the trade initiative is all about opening the vast US market to producers from sub-Saharan Africa? Agoa is a unilateral one-way deal that allows goods from sub-Saharan Africa entry into the US...
Southern Africa: AGOA Exports Threatened By Dropping of Quotas
Former US assistant trade representative for Africa, Rosa Whitaker, has denied that her business dealings with Uganda were in breach of US government ethical rules.She also denied discussing her private consulting business with Ugandan officials while she held the US government job.An American newspaper, Los Angeles Times, last Wednesday said "the case of Rosa Whitaker stands out as an example of why Washington officials are increasingly debating what constitutes a conflict of interest in such comings and goings."Whitaker left the US...
Keep Faith with Africa's Reformers
The United States government has just released a report which acknowledges that changing import rules to remove product quotas in textiles and apparel will in all likelihood cause African imports to the US to decline. African countries currently benefit from the quota system which provides them with guaranteed access to developed countries' markets for these products. The quota system is set to end on January 1, 2005 when the United States is forced to scrap the quotas for all countries in line with the Uruguay Round's Agreement on Textiles...
Scrapping of WTO Quota System will cause AGOA Exports to drop
A new report by the US government on the impact of changing import rules for the garment industries of Southern African countries under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) suggests that exports to the United States are likely to decline."Industry sources indicated that the region's overall share of US apparel imports will fall, notwithstanding AGOA preferences," said the report by the Office of the United States Trade Representative.Although AGOA provides duty-free access to the US market, a key advantage has been African...
USTR: Africa Needs AGOA Action Plan
By Rosa Whitaker: Four years ago, Washington witnessed a rare moment of consensus. In the heat of an election year, minds met on the importance of drawing sub-Saharan Africa into the mainstream of the global economy.The result was the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in which we said to African nations: if you create conditions conducive to broad-based growth, we will give you special access to our markets to see that your reforms pay off.Since its enactment in May 2000, AGOA has helped change the lives of millions for the better....
Investments between Angolan and US Businesses can Improve
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is "definitely working" to enhance and expand trade between the United States and Africa, but to fully benefit from that historic trade legislation, each AGOA-eligible country must develop its own AGOA Action Plan. Assistant United States Trade Representative for Africa Florizelle Liser made that point March 9 while addressing a forum organized by the Women in International Trade (WIIT) group in Washington. To illustrate her point on AGOA's success, Liser told her audience that 2003 trade...
South African Oranges a Top Performer under AGOA
Business opportunities between Angolan and US businesses, as well as others can rise significantly within two years, should the norms of cooperations be publicised more widely.This was said today in Luanda by the director of the commercial liaison agency for East and West Africa Common Market (Comesa), Moses Simemba, during a seminar on business opportunities between Angolan and US business people. Speaking to Angop, Moses Simemba said as well that one of the hindrances to business between the business classes from both countries is the poor...
Tanzania Continues to be Marginalised under AGOA
Although publicity is given mostly to the industrial goods-categories that qualify for duty-free access to the US market under AGOA, South African-produced oranges have been one of the star performers during 2003. This is according to data recently published by the United States International Trade Commission (USITC). “Fresh oranges” are one of the products not previously eligible under the US’ General System of Preferences (GSP) but which qualify for preferential market access when shipped from an AGOA-beneficiary country. Being...
Uganda: Parliament Summons Apparel Firm
Tanzania is unable to fully access the vast US market under the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), a meeting of Tanzanian business people was told in Dar es Salaam early this week.Exporters from Tanzania to the US complained of high freight charges on bulky and heavy items like honey and sisal products.Lack of loans to facilitate efficient movement of goods is not readily available from financial institutions which demand collateral, the meeting was told.The US requires strict observation of sanitary regulations on goods exported into...
AGOA Trade Bills May Now Be Harmonised
The parliamentary committee on industrial relations has summoned all Apparels Tri-Star Uganda senior officials to answer questions relating to the welfare of workers and the performance of the company.This follows yesterday's throwing out of the company's human resource manager, Teddy Mbabazi, for time wasting.The members also wished to know Tri-Star's compliance with national and international labour laws and the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act regulations.Mbabazi, who was appearing before the committee to answer queries on the company's...
Proposed AGOA III legislation - Senate version S.1900
Below is an earlier analysis of S. 1900, the AGOA III legislation which was initially proposed in November 2003 On November 20 and 21, 2003, a new trade Bill relating to US-African trade relations was introduced in the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America. It is proposed that this bill, commonly referred to as “AGOA III”, be enacted under the formal title of “United States-Africa Partnership Act of 2003”. [The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was enacted by the United States to grant eligible...
SA: Agoa Expiry Will Hang Local Textiles Out To Dry
The future of a US law on which Kenya has hitched a lift to spawn a $164 million industry and create 30,000-plus jobs might lie in California.Sources have told BusinessWeek that when the two draft Agoa (African Growth and Opportunity Act) Bills, which have been tabled before Congress are eventually harmonised into one, a Republican from the western seaboard state, Bill Thomas, who chairs the House's powerful Ways and Means Committee, is expected to play a central role in any emerging dispensation.In fact, keen watchers of the progress of the...
Cameroon: AGOA Concerned With Environmental Problems
Last year South African exports to the US rose to a record level of about $4,9-billion, the South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) reports.Precious metals and stones and automobiles, parts and accessories together accounting for 56% of this total.The top ten export product groups reportedly continued to account for 84% of total exports to the US up from 78% in 1994.Sacob also said that exports have grown 145% since 1994 with the most dramatic step up coming in 2000 and 2001 with the advent of the Agoa, which has been a significant...
Automotive Exports Rise 34% Under AGOA
The American-supported Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has identified environmentally related problems such as water purification as one of its priorities. The Director of the AGOA Training Centre based in Cotonou, Republic of Benin, Mrs Soppo B. Ngalle says, the distribution of drinking water purification machines is among the various opportunities so far identified by the AGOA management. Others centre around trade in textile and craft, fruit processing and low-cost housing.Mrs Soppo Ngalle is preparing a series of sensitisation...
USTR Zoellick Sees Progress On Advancing Doha Trade Agenda
Data published a few days ago by the United States International Trade Commission for the year 2003 reveals that US imports of transportation equipment under AGOA rose 34% in $-terms between 2002 and 2003. African exports in this category rose from US$ 545 million in 2002 to US$ 732 million last year. A closer analysis shows that South Africa is the only AGOA-beneficiary country exporting transportation equipment under AGOA. ‘Transportation equipment’ includes motor vehicles (cars, trucks and buses), engines and certain motor vehicle...
SA's Exports Grow To $4,9bn In 2003
The local clothing industry would lose its advantage in terms of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) when the agreement on textiles and clothing was terminated at the end of the year, Brian Brink, the executive director of the Textile Federation, said at the weekend. The agreement has protected the US domestic industry by imposing quotas on imports, but these have not applied to sub-Saharan Africa countries that are eligible for duty- and quota-free imports under Agoa. Terminating the agreement would flood the US market with cheap...
Tapping the US Market Through AGOA
African trade ministers failed to secure an extension of the US-led African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) at the Mombasa consultative meeting.Africa had appealed to Washington to act urgently on a long-standing request to extend the pact that boosts African exports to the United States.Assistant US Trade Representative for Africa, Florizelle Liser, though not giving a definite date for the extension, however, noted that the US legislators were planning to introduce a new Bill by mid-year that would set dates for the extension of the Agoa...
Decision on AGOA Extension Deferred
"Little by little we make progress" in advancing the World Trade Organization's (WTO's) Doha agenda -- a cause to which President Bush remains fully committed -- United States Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick told reporters February 18.Following talks in Mombasa, Kenya, with African trade ministers, European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, and World Trade Organization Director-general Supachai Panitchpakdi, Zoellick told waiting reporters, "We have hard work ahead, but I leave this session with a feeling of...
Nigerians Urged to Maximise AGOA's Benefits
Analysis: Trade statistics released a few days ago by the US Department of Commerce, Office of Textiles and Apparel, confirms Lesotho as the dominant beneficiary of duty-free access to the vast US market for apparel under AGOA. Lesotho’s share of apparel exports under AGOA amounted to 31% (or $ 372 million) in 2003. AGOA removes import duties on a vast range of goods produced in Africa, although to date the clothing manufacturing sector has been one of the largest single beneficiaries.Lesotho qualifies for a temporary waiver from AGOA’s...
Latest Apparel Export Data for 2003 Confirms Lesotho’s Top Spot
Nigerian exporters have been implored to concentrate on processed products in order to gain easier access to the American market under the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA).President Olusegun Obasanjo made the appeal during an audience with an American delegation led by Congressman William Jefferson at the State House. He urged the United States Congress to make AGOA work for Nigeria.Congressman William Jefferson had earlier commended President Obasanjo's efforts in Liberia, Sierra Leone and on the New Partnership for Africa's...
Nigeria's President Obasanjo Advises Country's Exporters
East Africa may be forced to look beyond the garment sector and develop new product lines to survive Asian competition for the US market once the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) quota restrictions on textile and apparel imports are lifted next year.It is expected that the low-cost and high-volume textile and apparel producers of Asia, notably China, India and Pakistan, will crowd out the fledgling textile producers from East Africa and other developing countries from US markets, making it difficult for them to continue reaping the...
East Africa Faces Asian Tigers as AGOA Quotas Go
Kenya's flower industry is widely seen as the fastest growing area in a stagnant economy. Bringing in Ksh20 billion ($256.4 million) annually in foreign exchange, the industry is a leading employer, with an estimated 500,000 people deriving their livelihood from it.With an annual production of 35,000 tonnes and control of 60 per cent of the $165 million African flower trade, Kenya is the world's leading producer of flowers, supplying about 25 per cent of the European Union's total requirements, followed by Columbia and Israel.Kenya's success...