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The president of the United States of America, George W. Bush, released on Tuesday, a statement pointing out Angola as eligible and beneficiary of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), according to a press note of that country's embassy.The document, without outlining any more details, explains that AGOA has increased USA's trade with Sub-Saharian Africa, helping to create thousands of employments and investment in African countries.Click here to view the press release in the AGOA.info news archive.

African countries that make no effort to improve the quality of their products risk being excluded from the US Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, (Agoa) Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) officials who recently toured the United States were told. Following the tour, two US groups are expected in Nairobi next year. A team from the Black American Chamber will be coming in January and Sir Jim McDermont, one of the initiators of Agoa, will be coming in April to assess Kenya's trade with the US. The 11-member KNCC team,...

In the United States alone, the market for handcrafted articles "is $10 billion a year -- billion with a capital 'B'," U.S. Commerce Department official Molly Williamson told an audience of African artisans, U.S. importers, and U.S. and African government officials at the Smithsonian Institution's Ripley Center during the Third AGOA Forum in Washington in December."There's a strong desire to find the unique, the interesting, the product with a story," said Williamson, who is deputy assistant secretary of commerce for Africa, the Middle East...

While market access is the drumbeat of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the capacity to trade competitively in the U.S. and global marketplace is really the key to making this trade legislation work for Africa, says Stephen Lande, president of Manchester Trade Ltd. In a December 8 address to the 2003 Private Sector Session of the Third AGOA Forum, Lande, an international trade adviser said, "We spend so much time...talking about market access opportunities...but to put it very simply, unless you have world class, competitive...

ONE determining factor for market access is that each product under AGOA is subject to the normal import rules and regulations.Different United States regulatory agencies are responsible for handling imports into that country with products falling under agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting being subject to inspection by the US department of agriculture (USDA). Food products are subject to random inspection by the Food and Drug Agency (FDA).The US customs is responsible for clearing all imports into the American market and enforcing...

Kenyan coffee has finally been included in the list of local exports to the United States through the African Growth Opportunity Act (Agoa) agreement.Cooperative Development and Marketing minister Peter Njeru Ndwiga announced yesterday that the inclusion was one of the major achievements made by a Kenyan delegation to the US last week.He said that in a major break from tradition, locally produced coffee would now be fully processed, packed and sold to the US under a Kenyan brand name.Previously, local coffee had been auctioned at the Nairobi...

Trade under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, (AGOA), has hit a record N1.53 trillion ($10.2 billion) in the first three quarters of 2003, representing a 59 per cent increase over the same period in 2002.According to information from Nigeria's Public Affairs Section of the United States Embassy, Abuja, the President of the Corporate Council on Africa, Mr. Stephen Hayes said the "runaway success of AGOA has affirmed its place as the cornerstone of US-Africa trade relationship."AGOA was signed into law on May 18, 2000 and offers trade...

On Tuesday, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was meeting with African Trade and Finance ministers in the Executive Office Building next to the White House about the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa). "I have a surprise for you," Rice said, and President George W. Bush walked in for an unadvertised discussion.He talked to the group for 15 or 20 minutes and told them that "he would continue his commitment to Agoa," according to one non-African participant who described the session as "a very good, very clear presentation to...

Nigeria's Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday came out with six strategies in response to the general belief that Nigeria has not derived much benefit from the Africa Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA). The strategies would also help to reposition and re-engineer the Act.The Minister of Health, Professor Eyitayo Lambo and Minister of State for Finance, Mrs Nenadi Esther Usman, unfolding the strategies while briefing State House Correspondents on the outcome of the FEC meeting, said the FEC has decided to ensure the upgrading of domestic...

"You have to compete, period. Don't identify the Chinese or the Vietnamese as a problem," Constance Hamilton, the senior director for African affairs at the U.S. Trade Representative's Office, said she told African delegates to the third AGOA Forum, meeting in Washington December 9-10.The forum, officially the "United States-Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum," took place at the State Department, with complementary concurrent sessions at other venues sponsored by the private sector December 8-9 and the civil society...

Tensions over North-South trade issues emerged in joint presentations on Monday by top Kenyan and American trade officials.The differing views were expressed at a conference in Washington on the future of the African Growth and Opportunity Act.Trade and Industry minister Mukhisa Kituyi and US Trade representative Robert Zoellick agreed in their luncheon speeches that while Agoa had been beneficial to many African countries, improvements could be made to ensure its gains were consolidated and broadened."By any measure, Agoa has been...

The benefits of AGOA are "clear for all to see," the Mauritian Minister of industry and international trade said December 9 as he thanked the United States on the part of all Africans for enacting such historic trade legislation.Speaking at the third United States, Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum on AGOA at the State Department's Loy Henderson Auditorium, Cuttaree said AGOA has increased job creation in Lesotho, Swaziland, Senegal, Uganda and Mozambique and has allowed families to raise their standard of living and to...

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Mauritian Minister of Industry and International Trade Jayen Cuttaree praised the effectiveness of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and called for its enhancement in the form of AGOA III.They made their remarks December 9 as they jointly opened the third meeting of the United States-Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum at the State Department's Loy Henderson Auditorium.In his remarks, Powell reiterated President's Bush's strong commitment to Africa and the AGOA process,...

The runaway success of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has affirmed its place as the "cornerstone" of the U.S.-Africa trade relationship, says Stephen Hayes, president of the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA).In the first three quarters of 2003, trade under AGOA amounted to more than $10.2 billion -- a 59 percent increase over the same period last year -- Hayes said December 8 at the opening of the 2003 Private Sector Session of the Third U.S.-Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum."The significant capital...

There is an undercurrent of growing concern among supporters of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa) about the legislation's future. As key Agoa meetings get underway in Washington, D.C., advocates of the Act - which gives African countries privileged access to U.S. markets - claim there is only weak support in the Bush Administration for extending the measure beyond its present expiration of 2008.On November 25, Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, offered a bill (S. 1900) to...

Kenyan Trade and Industry minister Mukhisa Kituyi will today be a key speaker at a Washington conference on the future of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).The two-day event, in which members of President George W. Bush's cabinet are also taking part, will focus on the provisions of the US preferential trade scheme for Africa that may endanger the economic gains Kenya has made.The US State Department estimates that 30,000 Kenyans hold jobs directly related to the three-year-old initiative. Another 150,000 Kenyans are said to work...

A U.S. congressman says he is proposing legislation that would enable participants in the African Growth and Opportunity Act program to share in the benefits accorded to free trade agreement partners of the United States.America needs to implement a new trade policy -- one that is forward-looking for the 21st Century while being grounded in what's best for people and nations and not what's merely expedient -- Democratic Congressman Jim McDermott told those gathered at the 2003 Private Sector Session of the Third U.S.-Sub-Saharan Africa Trade...

America needs to implement a new trade policy like AGOA III -- one that is forward-looking for the 21st Century while being grounded in what's best for people and nations and not what's merely expedient -- Democratic Congressman Jim McDermott told those gathered at the 2003 Private Sector Session of the Third U.S.-Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum.Speaking December 8 to an audience of ambassadors, ministers and business executives in Washington, McDermott said: "We need to practice international trade policy for a new...

The US government confirmed yesterday that ministers from 38 African countries will gather in Washington DC next week, for trade meeting.Imports to the US from African countries, excluding oil, jumped 50% last year, and in South Africa, sub-Sahara's most important economy, exports of automobiles have increased sixteenfold in the past two years.In Lesotho, new export-oriented garment factories have created 25 000 jobs - and for the first time in its history, private sector manufacturing employment, thanks to trade, exceeds government...

Last week, Rosa Whitaker, the Ugandan Government's American consultant on benefiting from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), disclosed some encouraging news.A new bill is before the US Congress seeking to extend trade concessions for selected African countries involved in the exports of textiles/garments to the US.Originally, the US only gave these countries up to 2005 to enjoy the duty/quota-free protection under AGOA. The proposed changes seek to push this peroid to 2015.Central to this proposal is that many investors say it is...

Despite the promises of virtually unlimited duty-free access to the United States market for apparels made in sub-Saharan Africa under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), textile companies in Nigeria are yet to take full advantage by exporting their products to that market.At a one-day seminar entitled, "International Trade: Updates and Opportunities," Ezekiel Onaolapo Okeniyi, the Customs Area Controller at Seme border, Badagry, noted that Nigeria has not taken full advantage of AGOA.According to him, recent studies in textiles...

The African Growth and Opportunity Act III (Agoa III) was introduced into the US senate and house of representatives late last week, bringing it closer to be signed into law and ensuring long-term trade benefits for South African companies.If passed, the amendments to the partnership with more than 35 sub-Saharan countries, originally signed into law by former president Bill Clinton in 2000, will extend the deadline for preferential trade benefits from 2008 until at least 2015.Agoa's favourable trade benefits were extended in Agoa II last...

Countries belonging to the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), namely South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland steadily increased their exports to the US under AGOA for the year to September 2003. This is according to the latest trade data - denominated in US $ - released by the United States International Trade Commission (USITC). All five countries are AGOA-beneficiaries, and each has qualified under the “apparel provisions” which grants preferential market access also to garment exports.In terms of overall exports...

Trade liberalisation is not an end in itself, commerce, trade and industry minister Dipak Patel has said.In a speech read for him by his deputy Eugene Appel at the opening of the 16th Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) intergovernmental committee of experts in Lusaka yesterday, Patel said trade liberalisation must be looked at as a means to sustainable development through investment.Patel said it was encouraging that national and regional consultations were undertaken towards the creation of a COMESA Common Investment...

Manufacturers and exporters have been urged to work towards efficient expertise so as to ensure quality of finishing and acceptable packaging of products under AGOA.The presidential adviser on AGOA, Mrs. Modupe Sasore, stated this in a paper presented at the 2003 annual seminar/luncheon of the small and medium scale enterprises/distributive trade group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Lagos.She disclosed that the responsibilities of manufacturers and exporters under AGOA include the ability to deliver orders (usually large...

The proposed broadening of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), which is now being considered by the US congress, could boost foreign investment in SA and other sub-Saharan countries, economists said. Prospects of much-needed foreign investment in the region and improved market access in the US for agricultural products were among several benefits the extended Agoa programme was expected to offer. "The proposed changes under Agoa III will be a major breakthrough for eligible African countries," said Henry Flint of Standard Bank's...

In A move that could further bolster SA's exports to the US, the proposed expansion of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa) has been tabled in the US Congress.Agoa is estimated to have raised African exports to the US by 1000% since 2001 and created 60000 jobs.It allows for duty-free and quotafree access for more than 1800 products, such as automotive and textiles from SA and other sub-Saharan countries into the US.The new bill, known as Agoa III, proposes the extension of the programme from 2008 to at least 2015."We have been...

Experts of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), recently visited some Douala based enterprises. The visit which took them to five business locations, was out to drill Cameroonian entrepreneurs on how to improve the quality and quantity of their products destined for American markets. Led by Mrs Jean Bolden, Senior Associate, Cyinthia, specialist in textile and Soppo Ngale, AGOA facilitator for Cameroon, the visit began with a stop over at the Batoula firm in Bonaberi where plastic bottles, mattresses, spunches and bed sheets are...

An African trade forum is scheduled to take place in Washington DC on December 8 and 9.Sponsored by the Corporate Council on Africa and the US government, the forum will focus on expansion of trading opportunities for African exporters in America under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).It will specifically address under-supply of America's lucrative handicrafts market as well as the deepening of the textile, apparels and agricultural product market under the Act. The session will also focus on US government policies that impact...

The proposed enhancement to the landmark U.S. trade partnership with more than 35 nations in sub-Saharan Africa known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) came a step closer to becoming law with its introduction in the Senate and House of Representatives November 20 and 21, respectively.S. (Senate) 1900 and HR (House of Representatives) 3572 -- bills collectively called AGOA III -- were part of a flurry of legislation that energized Congress prior to its Thanksgiving recess. Lawmakers in the House are running behind in passing...

Kenya could lose its export quota under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) if it does not have a fully-developed cotton industry by the end of September next year. (This is assuming that proposed amendments to AGOA contained in the AGOA III bill currently before congress do not materialise. AGOA.info ed)Mr Finn Holm-Olsen, the Agoa Business Linkages Adviser for East Africa Trade Hub, told a weekend Inter-Region Economic Network workshop in Mombasa that countries wishing to export clothes to the US must have developed their own raw...

There are socks, socks, and more socks everywhere at Network Knitwear Fabrics (NKF). NKF is a manufacturing and export company, located at the industrial and port city of Tema, 18km east of Accra (Ghana), established a year and a half ago. Its purpose is to take advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), a US legislation designed to allow more than a thousand products, including textiles, to be sold in the United States without paying any tariffs. The socks originate semi-processed from the US. "When they arrive, the toes...

This is a transcript of remarks made in the US House of Representatives on the presentation of the AGOA III Bill.SPEECH OF HON. JIM McDERMOTT OF WASHINGTON IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2003:Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, partisan divisions are common in the Congress, but a few issues regularly escape those boundaries. International trade typically is one of them. Although the votes that gave President Bush Trade Promotion Authority confirm that even international trade can be an intensely polarizing issue, it frequently...

Today, a group of Republican and Democratic Members of the House of Representatives joined Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) in introducing legislation to extend the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). House Members joining the legislation include: Jim McDermott (D-WA), Edward Royce (R-CA), Charles Rangel (D-NY), William Jefferson (D-LA), and Richard Neal (D-MA).Upon introduction, Senator Lugar said, "This legislation recognizes the enormous potential for economic growth and development in sub-Saharan Africa. It embraces the vast diversity...

"Figure for first nine months of 2003 already exceed last year's total", says envoy. SOUTH African exports under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), which grants preferential access to the US markets for some African goods, are up sharply, despite overall exports dropping 4,4% in 2002.Gillian Milovanovic, the charge d'affaires at the US embassy, said total exports from SA under Agoa for the first nine months of this year already exceeded the total figure recorded last year.Milovanovic said "many South African producers had adapted...

Nigeria's Federal Government has reiterated its resolve to partner with the private sector to make the country take full advantage of Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), which can attract N20 million annually through the export of agricultural products.The special Adviser to the President on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), Mrs Modupe Sasore, who made this declaration on Wednesday in Lagos at this year's seminar of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Trade Group of the LCCL said: "the government is repositioning AGOA for...

The Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) will have to fight for certain provisions within the proposed free-trade agreement (FTA) that is currently being negotiated with the US, a (South African) Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) official said yesterday.Speaking at a workshop on building business partnerships between South Africa and the US, the DTI’s director of the US Trade Division, Victor Mashabela, said special requirements of Sacu countries would not be “handed to them on a silver platter”.“At the last meeting, the US...

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), says it is now prepared for the implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).The AGOA was initiated by the United States to enable African countries have un hindered access to American markets through the exportation of textiles, wearing apparels, footwear and some agricultural products.The Act was signed into law by former US President Bill Clinton on May 18, 2000 and was also aimed at creating a new US Africa partnership by promoting increased trade and other economic activities.NCS...

THE Uganda Development Bank (UDB) will not re-schedule the Apparels Tri-Star loan repayment portfolio, the bank's executive in charge of investment, Dr. A.K. Apiah, confirmed yesterday.The bank is administering the loans from the Government estimated at US$3m (sh6b).Tri-Star got a loan of US$2.5m (sh5b) from UDB and an additional $500,000 (sh1b) from the same bank with the Government as guarantor.Apparels Tri-Star's managing director Veluppillai Kananathan has persistently pleaded with the bank to re-schedule the loan repayment, saying...

Energy-related products exported under AGOA continue to account for the largest share of AGOA-eligible exports to the US this year. This is according to figures just released by the US International Trade Commission. For the year to September 2003, energy-related exports accounted for almost 80% of total exports under AGOA. This amounts to US$ 8.2bn worth of exports thus far in 2003 alone, which is almost the same value as total exports under AGOA for all product categories in 2002. Petroleum oils account for most exports in this product...

Kenya is now ranked third in terms of apparel and textile exports to the United States.In April, the country overtook Mauritius to get behind Lesotho and South Africa, side by side with a 38 per cent increase in Africa's share of the US textile and apparel market - from 1.55 per cent of the total in first half of 2002, to 1.86 per cent between January and June.Kenya accounted for 13.2 per cent of the total square metres equivalent of the products sent to the US. The upsurge in the activity follows the accreditation of the country in 2000...

The Malawian government is inviting investors to submit proposals to venture into textile manufacturing in that country following the operational problems that have rocked its leading textile manufacturing firm, Mapeto DWSM.Malawi has been relying on Mapeto DWSM, as the supplier of textile materials to garment manufacturers, to export to preferential markets mainly in the US under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).The former State-owned company, which used to be known as David Whitehead & Sons before being privatised last...

Zambia's hope in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is in the horti- and floral culture sectors, AGOA Africa manager Moses Simemba said in an interview.Mr Simemba said there was a big market for flowers from Zambia in the United States market and his desk had been pushing the Zambia Export Growers Association (ZEGA) to take advantage of the situation."Some AGOA members have taken advantage of the facility and have made huge export earnings from the US market," he said.He cited Lesotho which had staggered its exports to about...

Ugandan lawmakers have raised questions over the ownership of Apparels Tri-Star, the Ugandan apparel manufacturer subject to much negative publicity in recent weeks.Members of Parliament also questioned the perks that government has been giving the textiles firm, which exports garments to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act.On the first day of Parliament after a month on recess, MPs were bound to ask questions about the affairs of the firm, which sacked 298 female employees, popularly known as Agoa girls, after...

The Nigerian Minister of Commerce, Ambassador Idris Waziri, has called on investors and stakeholders to harmonise their operations to fully benefit from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).Ambassador Waziri made this call when he received the special assistant to the President on AGOA, Mrs. G.M. Sasore, yesterday in his office.He said that the stakeholders have a significant role to play in the take-off of AGOA, noting that it took the government two years to create the enabling Act and what remains is for the stakeholders to...

The Ugandan Government reportedly spent sh5.8b to train over 1,000 girls at the Apparel Tri-Star factory state minister for information, Nsaba Buturo, said yesterday.The sum also included renovation of the former Coffee Marketing Board building housing the factory.He said the Government was investigating the allegations made by the girls against the management of Tri-Star and expects to complete the probe in a week's time.Addressing the weekly Government press briefing at Nakasero, Buturo dismissed claims by the chairman of the UPC...

The US government announced yesterday that it supported the planned signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the development of the Trans-Kalahari Corridor (TKC).The deal will be signed on on November 3, 2003, at Namport in Walvis Bay, by Transportation Ministers from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.A similar event took place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on October 8, 2003, with the signing of the Dar es Salaam Corridor constitution.Both these agreements were developed with the support of the US Agency for International...

Investors from India are expected in Kenya this month to negotiate the revival of Rivatex Factory in Eldoret.Assistant Minister for Trade and Industry Petkay Miriti said another team from an American company, Progressive Ag. Co. LLC, is currently in Kenya to discuss revival of the factory.Miriti said the American company made a preliminary visit to Rivatex in August 2001 and expressed interest in reviving it.Miriti was answering a question by Mosop MP John Sambu (Kanu).Sambu wanted to know what steps the minister was taking to ensure Rivatex...

US-based lobbyists are pushing hard for the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), signed into law by former president Bill Clinton in 2000 and extended in 2002 by current incumbent George W Bush, to be extended.In a statement issued by the US embassy, former assistant US trade representative for Africa, Rosa Whitaker, said the Agoa 3 action committee wanted Africa's preferential US market access under Agoa extended to 2015 from 2008.The group also called for an end to uncertainties over what constituted Agoa-eligible garments, the...