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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...

The Ugandan High Court yesterday stopped the dismissal of the striking girls at the Apparels Tri-Star factory.The company makes garments for export to the US under the Africa Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA).The interim order was issued by Justice Okumu Wengi after one of the girls and trade unionists filed an application. He said the dismissal would be valid only if Tri-Star paid the girls all outstanding dues and benefits and transported them back to their homes.About 1,400 girls work at the factory.Justice Okumu Wengi delivered the ruling...

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) will create an environment conducive to the implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).The Nepad declaration and Agoa share a number of prin-ciples, US Embassy economic section deputy chief Alan Tousignant says. “We see Nepad, which is an African initiative by Africans, as a promising programme that encourages cooperation in order to improve the political, economic and social situation in Africa,” he says.On the issues of economic and corporate governance –...

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr Saidu Samaila Sambawa, has urged African countries to take maximum advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)He said that African countries could reap up to 60 billion dollars in trade with the U.S under AGOA.The minister was speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) after participating in the UN General Assembly debate on economic growth of Africa.He explained that enormous labour and textile potential in the continent could form the basis of the new trade deal with the...

For all its efforts to boost ties with the region and the continent, South Africa imported a minuscule 3% of its needs from other African countries during the first six months of this year. The balance of trade with Africa is weighted eight-to-one in South Africa’s favour, aggravated by the economic collapse of the country’s largest continental trading partner, Zimbabwe. South Africa’s traffic with Zimbabwe is starting to take on the complexion of emergency relief, with trade in vegetable products trebling in value between 1999 and...

More than 1,000 young women who were on strike at a local textile factory have been fired.The firm, which produces and exports textiles to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, AGOA, has also been closed temporarily.The employees, believed to be more than 1,000, and popularly known as Agoa girls, were sacked following a two-day strike at the Apparel Tri-Star factory in Bugolobi, Kampala.The head of the company, Mr V. Kananathan, wrote to Dr David Ogaram, the commissioner for labour in the Ministry of Gender, Labour...

Former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa Rosa Whitaker joined with members of the United States Congress, the Bush administration and influential representatives of the private sector to call for further enhancements to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) that was passed into law three years ago.Speaking on behalf of a group known as "The AGOA 3 Action Committee," Whitaker told a packed congressional briefing October 21, "We all have the common belief that the legitimate aspirations of African people for growth and...

The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Civil Society Network Secretariat is coordinating Civil Society’s participation in the Third US - Sub-Saharan Africa Economic Trade and Cooperation Forum taking place December 9-10, 2003. To this end, the AGOA Civil Society Session will take place December 8-10, 2003 on the main campus of Howard University in Washington, DC.This is the second year of The AGOA Civil Society Session, and this year's theme is "The Next Step for Sustaining AGOA's Momentum: A Civil Society Perspective." This session...

Countries that have taken advantage of the provisions of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), notably Lesotho and Swaziland, have enjoyed an enormous increase in formal employment. There are early indications Agoa is helping these states to climb a rung higher on the industrialisation ladder, and may offer other African nations a template for success. Agoa was ratified by the Bush administration in October 2000. In December 2000, President George Bush extended duty-free treatment under the generalised system of preferences (GSP) to...

The Export Processing Zones want the African Growth and Opportunity Act renewed for another four years.The move would help create about 200,000 more jobs from the current 37,000, said the chairman of the Kenya Apparel Manufacturers Exporters Association, Mr Jaswinder Bedi.The current four-year treaty to export textiles to the US is scheduled to end in October next year.Mr Bedi urged the Government to help the EPZ negotiate with the United States for the extension of the treaty by another term."We are in a dilemma about what to do if the...

THE Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) and the US are ready for "real trade negotiations" following a successful round of talks in Washington last week, SA's chief trade negotiator Xavier Carim said last night.This means that it is still possible that the negotiations will be concluded on schedule at the end of next year.Carim, who had just returned from Washington, said that the latest round had been a "very good one" and the stage was set for serious nitty-gritty negotiations when both sides meet again in December."We are prepared to...

Small businesses in Southern Africa are testing the United States as a market for a wide range of handmade products, from furniture and woven rugs to jewellery and garments. Samples of the work were shown last week at the US Chamber of Commerce, where exhibitors were seeking opinions from potential buyers and other producers on whether the products are fit for American markets or need improvement. The African exhibitors are hoping to cash in on an agreement between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa signed in 2000 that allows duty-free...

Opinion&Analysis: The spat between the unions and organisations such as Mr Price needs a touch of reality. If such organisations are buying vast quantities of clothing from, say Lesotho, it is only because legislation permits it.I was chairman of the working group for trade protocol for Malawi and have insight into such oddities.Lesotho is a lesser developed country (LDC) as far as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) is concerned. For five years it can import fabric from wherever and sew it, qualifying as Agoa accepted.Back to Mr...

Total exports of apparel from the AGOA-beneficiary countries are up 37% year-on-year to August 2003, while the proportion of exports qualifying for duty-free access under AGOA rose marginally from 72% to 75%. With the cut-off date for the use of third-country textile inputs only a year away, more than three-quarters of all AGOA apparel exports thus far this year still utilised foreign inputs. This proportion has remained unchanged relative to the same period in 2002. Lesotho, Kenya, Mauritius, Madagascar, Lesotho and South Africa continue...

South African automotive-com-ponent manufacturers intent on exporting to the US should consider exporting products for which there is a growing demand.This is the view expressed at the Autocluster Africa conference this month by Roger Pitot, automotive sector consultant and chair of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa motor industry development plan (MIDP) committee.He outlined a number of products for which there is a growing demand which could be filled in part by South African manufacturers.Pitot noted...

Trade data for the Ivory Coast published by the United States was corrected today following a query to the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) by AGOA.info. USITC had inadvertently included certain trade figures in 2001 and ascribed these to having qualified for AGOA benefits. The Ivory Coast qualified for AGOA benefits much later than most other African beneficiary countries, namely on May 16, 2002. AGOA benefits thus only accrue to this country from that date onwards.USITC Tariff and Trade Information Manager Peg MacKnight...

From October 1, 2003, the Customs Division of the South African Revenue Service (Sars) will be taking over the administration of the fifteen-member European Union (EU), Norway and Switzerland Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). To date, the DTI’s Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria offices were responsible for its administration. The handover of the GSP administration to the Sars has effectively resulted in the remainder of the GSPs being administered by certain South African...

Cape Town - As many as 12 000 textile industry workers stand to lose their jobs by the end of the year, said Walter Simeone, president of the South African Textile Federation. He said that if the rand continued to strengthen indefinitely, about 35 000 people could lose their jobs. He said the strong rand was having a "devastating effect" on the industry. Already about 8 000 workers in the textile industry have lost their jobs since January. This is a result of a stronger rand and the loss this has meant to exporters. Simeone said a stronger...

The AGOA Steering Committee of the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) announced today December 8 and 9, 2003, as the dates for the Third AGOA Forum Private Sector Session. The Session will focus on U.S.-Africa trade in agriculture, apparel and handicrafts.Business and government leaders from nearly 40 African countries and the United States are expected to attend. According to CCA President Stephen Hayes, the two-day event will feature more than 20 workshops and plenary meetings.In addition, a gala reception and luncheons are expected to...

Globalisation and America's Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) offer tremendous opportunities for the Tanzania economy.This is according to the US Ambassador to Tanzania, Robert Royall, as told to scholars and businessmen who attended a seminar in Morogoro last week on how to export agricultural products to the US."Advances in technology bring us closer together," Royall said, adding that "the world becomes a smaller place; people and nations are more connected."He said consumers can benefit from more affordable goods, while businessmen...

Swaziland is the only African country with US trade privileges that the American Trade Department has been asked to remove from a list of countries eligible for such economic benefits, according to a petition filed by the American Federation of Labour-Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO)."The AFL-CIO petitions for the withdrawal of Swaziland's status as a beneficiary developing country, on the grounds that the government of Swaziland has not been and is not taking steps to afford internationally-recognised worker rights," reads the...

The challenge for African business leaders is to form synergies that will create business link through cross-border investments, Botswana’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Jacob Nkate, said in Johannesburg yesterday.“We would thereby prove that South Africa's and Botswana's economic and political stability are the basic attributes essential in promoting investor confidence,” he explained.Nkate said that such attributes were the bedrock of inducing private sector capital to any investment destination.“One of the barometers of this...

Ugandan producers of coffee, vanilla, and honey are here to invade the 39 percent of households in the United States that buy organic and/or natural products, and claim a small share of the $36.4b organic foods market in the US.According to a group from Uganda interviewed, September 8, at the offices of the Whitaker Group, their efforts to promote their organic foods stem in part from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), an innovative U.S. trade program whose aim is to spur sub-Saharan African exports.Whitaker Group is a...

Tanzanian exports to the US under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) doubled in 2002.The country exported $1.3 million worth goods, more than twice the $0.5 million it exported the previous year.The US ambassador to Tanzania, Robert Royall, is optimistic that this year too, the volume of exports will double.However, Mr Royall said: "More has to be done, not by the government, but by the new breed of Tanzania businesspeople who are not afraid of competition, who believe in themselves and who can produce goods that can compete on the...

ZAMBIA has so far only managed to export one agro produce, snow peas, directly to the American market out of the six that had been earmarked for that market under the American Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA).The produce that were being mitigated by experts from the Animal Planting Inspection Health Service (APIHS) an American institution, were babycorn, chillies, green beans, asparagus and magnut.Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) assistant secretary general Sindiso Ngwenya confirmed this yesterday in an interview in...

The US government claims that the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), a trade programme that lowers barriers to entry for African products into the giant US market, is evidence of its commitment to development through trade."Agoa shows the power of trade to lift people out of poverty,” said President Goerge W Bush on January this year.In a release submitted yesterday to coincide with trade negotiations taking place in Cancun, Mexico, the US government reported that US imports under Agoa grew to $9-billion in 2002, a 10% increase...

Cape Town - Independent trust ComMark, which is sponsored by the department for international development in the UK, launched an initiative earlier this week to help spur growth in the clothing industry in southern Africa.ComMark, which has £15 million in funding available for a five year implementation cycle, aims to help developing countries in the region.Executive director Paul Zille said the trust wanted to ensure these countries took advantage of the large employment growth opportunities that the clothing industry offered.In its work,...