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Moderator:   Good afternoon to everyone from the U.S. Department of State’s Africa Regional Media Hub. [scroll to bottom for the sound recording]  I would like to welcome our participants from across the continent and thank all of you for taking part in this discussion.  Today we are very pleased to be joined by Victoria Whitney, Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. Government’s Prosper Africa Initiative.  Ms. Whitney will discuss how Prosper Africa is unlocking billions of dollars of U.S. investment...

Nigeria’s export to the United States under a duty-free policy declined in the first eight months of 2020, recording $300.48m from January to August. According to the latest African Growth and Opportunity Act policy trade statistics, exports to the US under the duty-free policy fell by 88 per cent from $2,502.86m in the first eight months of 2019 to $300.48m in the corresponding period in 2020. The AGOA, a United States’ trade policy, enacted in 2000, is a legislation that facilitates a duty-free trade between exporters from...

Leading US politicians have urged President Trump to oppose the export of more plastic waste to Africa after an investigation by Unearthed and the New York Times revealed oil industry attempts to influence a US-Kenya trade deal. In a letter released after the investigation landed on the front page of the New York Times, one Republican and 61 Democrats from both the Senate and the House of Representatives said: “The United States’ solution to the plastic pollution crisis cannot be to simply open more markets...

The ranking Democratic and Republican members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa are packing a resolution urging the government of Tanzania to respect human and economic rights and to conduct free and fair elections on October 28. House Resolution 1120 – sponsored by California Democrat Karen Bass, who chairs the subcommittee, and the ranking Republican, Chris Smith from New Jersey – reflects growing concern over political and economic developments in Tanzania by members of Congress who follow Africa. Since the election in...

The US has warned Kenya against manipulation of the shilling against the dollar during the ongoing talks for a bilateral trade pact. The US is seeking an undertaking that Kenya will let market forces influence the rate of exchange of the shilling to the dollar as part of the trade agreement. This pre-condition in the free trade deal (FTA) echoes past claims by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that Kenya’s currency was overvalued, which drew protests from the central bank governor, Patrick Njoroge. “Ensure that Kenya avoids...

The country has the right skills in place — now it just needs co-ordination and capacity. The health and economic crisis brought on by Covid-19 has had a global economic effect. From disrupted supply chains to restrictions on the free movement of people and their skills, goods and capital, the world has had to adjust to a “new normal”. A question on the lips of those contemplating filling the void left by the forced rethink of the “one country” risk arising from reliance on factory China is whether Africa can benefit. Lesotho is...

In recent months, the U.S. began negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement with Kenya. These negotiations are aligned with the current administration’s vision for trade reciprocity rather than unilateral trade preference programs. Although these negotiations could produce the first bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and a sub-Saharan African country, a shift from regional preferential trade agreements to bilateral free trade agreements could undermine the growth of smaller countries, who may not be of enough economic...

On February 6, President Uhuru Kenyatta met with US President Donald Trump at the White House. Following the meeting, the two presidents announced their aim to pursue a free trade agreement between the two countries. By March 2020, President Trump had notified Congress of his intention, the key goal being cited as the need to reach an agreement that builds on the objectives of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The Trump administration and Kenya launched the trade negotiations in early July and both countries have set up a Trade...

The US has set new lower annual limits on duty and quota-free imports of apparel articles assembled from regional and third-country fabric under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in the upcoming fiscal year. The new figures are released by the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) for the 12 months from 1 October 2020 to 30 September 2021. The annual limits are set out in the AGOA Acceleration Act of 2004, and are calculated based on the volume of all apparel articles imported into the United States in...