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The Kenya Association of Manufacturers -KAM Board has elected Mr. Jaswinder Bedi from Nakuru-based Bedi Investments as the new KAM Chairman. Mr. Bedi joined the KAM Board 16 years ago where has served in the Trade Committee in which he currently chairs the International Trade and New Markets sub-committee with a focus on issues related to African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), World Trade Organisation (WTO), and Kenya's exports to foreign market. He is also chairman of the Kenya Apparel...

Brown's Cheeses is something of a multinational corporation on a tiny scale: It sells brie, mozzarella and other European-style cheeses made by East Africans, it's owned by a Kenyan couple of British descent, and their daughter and her American-born husband will start running the company this year.Its ambitions are far-reaching, too, and brought Brown's Cheeses to New York this summer for the Fancy Food Show.Andrew Stirling, the American, said his wife Delia's parents started the company in Limuru, Kenya, in the highlands north of Nairobi,...

USD 350 million is being invested in the Port of Luanda, one of Africa's most congested, in an effort to restructure the harbour and its facilities. This was disclosed at a meeting between port and government officials and a visiting US delegation to Luanda, which included US Assistant Trade Representative for Africa, Florie Liser. In a statement issued to the media after the one-day meeting, Francisco Venancio, Chairman of the Luanda Port Board of Directors said the port authority had issued concessions to various operators, mostly of 20...

'Transitional Trade' executive director Jacqueline Musiitwa has observed that Zambian businessmen have not fully utilised the honey market in the United States.Transitional Trade is an American market linkage organisation that operates in post-conflict African countries like Liberia and Rwanda.In an interview on Friday, Musiitwa said the market for honey in the US was abundant, and wondered why Zambian businessmen had not taken advantage of the provisions of the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) to export honey to that country.The AGOA...

Heads of state of the Southern Africa Customs Union (Sacu) will gather for a historic meeting in Pretoria next week to discuss the future of the union amid an increasing reluctance from SA to pay billions of rands annually to help fund member states' fiscal budgets. Sacu, which is celebrating its centenary this year, consists of SA, and Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS). This will be the second Sacu heads of state meeting since its inception, and comes after an invitation from President Jacob Zuma in April at the centenary...

The chief executive officer of the South Africa based TRUBOK, an apparel manufacturing company, has called on the U.S. government to open its vast market to high quality garments produced in her country.Doreen Vilakazi, who will participate in the upcoming Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) conference, scheduled in August, said her revamped apparel manufacturing company is producing quality garments that will rival products from any part of the world.Vilakazi said, since taking over the affairs of apparel manufacturing company TRUBOK,...

A US-Ghana Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council meeting, opened on Friday in Accra to discuss primary impediments and strategies to remove barriers and expand bilateral trade between the two countries. The meeting is being attended by a 26-member ministerial team from Ghana led by Ms. Hannah Tetteh, Trade and Industry Minister, and a 17-member delegation from the USA headed by Florie Liser, Assistant USA Trade Representative.TIFA was established in 1999 to deepen trade and investment relations between Ghana and USA. ...

The United States ambassador to Tanzania Mr Alfonso Lenhardt yesterday urged people, especially women, to exploit market potentials offered under the African Growth Opportunity Act (Agoa) before it comes to an end.He warned that Congress would most probably cancel the arrangement if it comes to its attention that no one was interested to exploit the opportunity.Agoa was mainly intended to boost African textile and apparel sales to the US by providing duty-free access for those products for countries that met US political and economic...

Two-way trade between Ghana and the United States amounted to a total of $361 million in the first four months of 2010, a 98% increase from the same period last year, a press release from the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy in Ghana copied to ghanabusinessnews.com has said.According to the release, US exports to Ghana grew 72% in the first four months of 2010, rising to $256 million. US imports from Ghana increased 217% to $105 million. Imports from Ghana under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) and the Generalized...

The harsh condition of doing business in Nigeria makes it difficult for her products to be competitive in the United States which is one of the reasons why the country has not been able to utilize the opportunity provided by the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA),a US consultant, Prof. Thomas Andrew O'Keefe has said.He made the remarks yesterday in Abuja at AGOA interactive forum with the theme: "Entrepreneurship and AGOA: Why Nigerian businesses should export to the US," organized by Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).AGOA...

President Barack Obama will host a town hall meeting next month with African youth leaders as part of a U.S. celebration of 50 years of independence being marked this year by 17 African countries."In honor of Africa's significant gains since 1960, its increasingly important voice on the world stage and in anticipation of the next 50 years of progress toward peace and prosperity, the United States will host a series of events focusing on the Future of Africa in Washington, D.C., in early August," Benjamin Chang, spokesman for the National...

United States President Barack Obama has praised Zambia for her continued efforts to maintain peace and stability in the African sub-region.Mr Obama said Zambia’s peaceful transition to self-governance and its commitment to maintaining peace for almost half a century will remain steadfast and that it is a positive example to neighbouring countries.He said this at the White House when newly appointed Zambia’s ambassador to the USA Sheila Siwela presented her credential.This is according to a statement released in Lusaka yesterday by first...

With about five years to the expiration of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in 2015, African countries have been advised to step up their efforts in taking advantage of the Act as a way of creating employment opportunities and improving the income of their small and medium enterprises, United States-based economist, Professor Thomas Andrew O'keefe, said in Lagos on Monday."The Act is for all countries in sub-Saharan Africa to take advantage of by exporting certain categories of products to the United States duty free. However,...

The Angolan Government will export, soon, agriculture and agro-industrial products to the United States of America (USA) to where it now exports oil and gas in order to diversify its exports profile.The information was given during a press conference by the Angolan and United States Government representatives after the opening session of the trade and investments council held under an agreement on trade and investments called TIFA.According to the representative of US delegation, Florie Lizer, her country intends to diversify and strengthen...

US and Angolan trade and development officials met today to discuss means for strengthening bilateral trade and investment ties. The meeting was the first held under the United States-Angola Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), which was signed in May 2009. The TIFA provides a high-level forum for advancing cooperation on the full spectrum of trade and investment issues between the United States and Angola. Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa Florie Liser and Angolan Commerce Vice Minister Archer Mangueira co-chaired...

Despite its elastic foreign exchange earning opportunities for Sub-Saharan African countries, Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings from cotton yarns and woven fabrics’ export to the United States of America (USA) through the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act’s (AGOA) window and other foreign countries in the past few years have been on consistent decline with the attendant negative implications for capacity building for local cotton and textile manufacturing companies.Available statistics sourced by the Nigerian Compass on Nigeria’s...

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is said to be creating more than 300,000 jobs in Africa and also brings in about $300 billion in export earnings and nearly $30 billion in non-oil exports to Africa at a minimal cost to United State (US) taxpayers.The Chair of the AGOA Action Committee and President, the Whitaker Group, the premier United State (US’s) trade consultancy facilitating trade between the US and Africa, Ms. Rosa Whitaker, who stated this said that AGOA has been very successful in the past decade in its...

The East African Community (EAC) Yesterday Begun a Threeday meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, aimed at developing a regional African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) work plan.AGOA is a partnership between the United States of America and Sub Saharan Africa aimed at creating an environment that encourages Africans to access the US market.A statement released by the EAC, Director for Trade, Dr. Flora Musonda, reads that the development of a regional approach for AGOA program will be based on the review of all the stages of production of eligible...

[Opiniopn] US Vice-President Joe Biden, like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, promised lots of American investments and development assistance to Kenya during their visits, if only we demonstrate our commitment to reforms by passing the proposed new Constitution.Though it is well known that American investors make decisions on their own independent assessment of opportunities in a given market, Mr. Biden's of conditional promise of massive US investments may have impressed some people both in the business and political circles.Harbouring...

SECRETARY CLINTON: Good afternoon, everyone. Well, thank you all very much and welcome again. I know you’ve been welcomed over and over again, but it’s a delight to have you here in the State Department for this briefing on Sub-Saharan Africa and the issues that affect the countries in that region and our relationship with them.We are very pleased to have such a broad cross-section. I understand we even have some people who may be watching us, as I see on this screen here, from universities. And I delighted that we have you with us. I...

African nations must stop seeking handouts and begin tough structural reforms, especially on trade, if they truly want to improve their economies, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday."Most of the work that needs to be done needs to be done in Africa," Clinton told a forum about U.S. diplomacy on the continent."If you look at trade between African countries, it is abysmally minimalistic," Clinton said. "African countries don't trade with themselves. They have barriers and tariffs and customs problems that stand in the way of...

Good afternoon. I would like to thank the Bureau of Public Affairs for organizing the Diplomacy Briefing Series and for inviting me to join all of you today to examine our key priorities in Africa.I want to begin today by emphasizing the strong commitment of this Administration to working with our African partners to bring about a more peaceful, stable, and prosperous Africa. This Administration sees immense potential in Africa, and we are determined to work with Africans across the continent to help realize this promise.Often, Africa has...

Heightened expectations greeted the arrival of a usual dignitary to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, as U. S. Vice President Joe Biden jetted into the country on Monday night.The much awaited arrival of Biden into the East African political and economic hub elicited huge expectations amongst political and business circles.This was expected given the impact such a visit could have on the U.S.-Kenya diplomatic and economic relations and even to the larger East African Community (EAC) region, given the level of U.S. business interests in the...

US Vice-President Joseph Biden’s visit to Kenya and other African states this week, coming only 10 months after the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traversed Sub-Saharan Africa, appears to demonstrate that President Barack Obama’s government accords high priority to Kenya and the rest of Africa.Whether this special attention is based on the need to help Africans address their numerous problems or on the desire to use Africa as an instrument in the promotion of American national interests, is hard to tell.But, how are Africans...

Jas Bedi of Bedi Investments — a Nakuru-based textile manufacturing company — waits for the day the government will convert the country’s Export Processing Zones (EPZs) into Special Export Zones (SEZs), which will allow his firm to sell products locally.Currently Bedi Investments’ textile products, which include high quality blankets, are largely for export especially to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) programme.“EPZ is largely apparel -based, which is denying other critical sectors of the...

Ethiopia - "Oh, yes!" cries Bethlehem Alemu, the dynamic founder and owner of SoleRebels, a game-changing shoe company in the heart of Addis Ababa, the ancient capital of Ethiopia.Working in Africa has its challenges. I'm used to stalking politicians in hallways, riding on the back of trucks with gun-turrets in Sudan, and negotiating UN flights in far-flung territories, but trying on hot pink vegan flip-flops was something new.Alemu, 30, runs a trailblazing business making shoes from old rubber tires and tubes with each one hand cut into...

The Obama administration is very much committed to a strong partnership with Africa, and the ninth annual U.S.-Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum -- better known as the AGOA Forum -- in August is part of that commitment, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson told African diplomats May 26.Addressing the African diplomatic corps at the State Department, Carson said: "We want to find ways to make this partnership beneficial to the United States and, most importantly, to Africa and the people of...

The establishment of the American Chamber of Commerce in The Gambia has been described as an important step in facilitating improved trade and investment sector in the country.Speaking yesterday at the launch of the ACC, its executive chairperson, Sylvia Grace George expressed hope that the chamber will be an inspiring and practical institution for The Gambia and the United States, noting that it will build a spirit of enterprise and co-operation in making sure that the objectives of the United States Embassy in The Gambia to boost and...

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the U.S. government’s trade preference program for Africa, is 10 years old this month.President Bill Clinton signed the AGOA bill into law on May 18, 2000. Since then, three successive administrations, including the Obama administration, have actively implemented the program working closely with African partners.Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Florie Liser said AGOA has led to a significant increase in two-way trade between the United States and Africa.“I would say that AGOA has been a...

The race by Asian countries to strike a free trade area (FTA) with the Europe puts the Kenyan textile producers between a hard place and a rock as far as their search for alternative export destinations go.For some time, Kenyan producers, like players from other sub Saharan African countries, have been betting on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) as an opportunity to penetrate the EU market, reducing overdependence on the increasingly competitive American market.Taking a cue from the hugely successfully African Growth and...

Congratulations abounded on Capitol Hill in Washington at a 10th birthday celebration for the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act.“By opening the American market to almost all goods from beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries, Agoa has helped Africans use trade to fight poverty and grow their economies,” US Trade Representative Ron Kirk declared.Mr Kirk acknowledged, however, that “more can be done to help African countries make the most of the opportunities Agoa provides.”Analysts outside the US government agree that Agoa did...

A few weeks ago, the AGOA Action Committee - a group consisting primarily of U.S. companies, U.S. academics, and Washington-based NGOs - recently released its six-pronged policy proposal that allegedly signifies a new U.S. policy approach toward Africa. This comes at the time of the 10th anniversary of the passage of AGOA and when a general stock-taking is underway in Washington. However, many of the policy proposals put forth are merely the repackaged ideas of old and, more importantly, reflect a failure to understand how both U.S. and...

In their quest for an alternate market, Kenyan textile manufacturers are facing tough competition, as the low-priced Asian manufacturers are seeking free-trade agreements (FTA) with the European Union (EU).For instance, India and Pakistan are currently working on their FTA with EU that would permit their industries easy access in to the EU markets.These FTAs that are getting signed between Asian countries and EU are likely to reduce the tariffs further, thereby, increasing the level of Asian exports in to the EU markets.As per Jaswinder...

Two professionals from East Africa have been chosen by an influential Washington think tank to develop policy proposals for consideration by the Obama administration, the US Congress and international institutions such as the World Bank.Founding director of the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis Mwangi Kimenyi and former Ugandan finance minister Ezra Suruma, were both appointed to posts at the Brookings Institution.Prof Kimenyi became a senior fellow a year ago, while Mr Suruma began his tenure as a visiting fellow last...

A landmark piece of trade legislation celebrated its 10th birthday on Capitol Hill May 12 with a party, a cake and a large group of proud supporters.U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk presided at a ceremony heralding the 10th anniversary of the enactment of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade preference program. In attendance were several past and present members of Congress who played key roles in the drafting, passage and implementation of AGOA, including Sander Levin, current chair of the House Ways and Means...

Export processing zones (EPZs) have mushroomed across Africa. Their logic is to attract export-oriented manufacturing investment to boost economies. EPZs, although they create controversy in certain circles, have been highl successful in Asia, central and Latin American countries. Is the attempt by Africa to follow suit bearing fruits?African states, from Egypt in the north to Zambia in the south, have embraced export processing zones (EPZ) as a strategy to attract foreign investment. Also known as special economic zones, industrial...

Not much has changed politically in Kenya since the violent clashes that erupted after the December 2007 presidential election and the power-sharing agreement that ended them in February 2008.Most of the reforms the power-sharing government agreed to implement have yet to materialize. The two factions appear more interested in fighting over who should run things than in getting things done.This failure to govern is the subject of daily headlines in the Kenyan newspapers, but the slow unfurling of a country is not something that tends to...

The United States said this week it is trying to promote a new type of trade, where Africa will add more value to its own raw materials, and that processed products -- whether they are fruit juices or clothes -- can go not only to the US duty free but also to the rest of the world.Africa may have a wealth of natural resources but these are typically sold for a pittance, while finished products are sold at a massive profit internationally. In addition, African countries that attempt to export processed and manufactured products find...

The Saharan region of Africa is still struggling to get a strong foot hold in the global arena. But with the aid of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), opportunities would be showing a silver lining. The AGOA Act was approved by the U.S. Congress to assist the Sub Saharan economies and augment relations between the concerned region and the US. Under the administration of Presidents George W. Bush and William J. Clinton, Rosa Whitaker developed and implemented the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Currently 39 African...

A giant textile factory, established with an investment of over 100 million dollars, was inaugurated on Friday, April 30, reports Capital. The Prime Minster, other Ministers and government officials attended the event in Alem Gena, which is around 20 kilometres west of Addis Ababa. During the inaugural ceremony, Girma Birru, Minister of Trade and Industry, said that the beginning of production by the factory will play a major role in strengthening the country's textile manufacturing value chain. The factory in Alem Gena is expected to...

Eminent development economist Dr. Paul Collier, Director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, warned on Monday that expanding the trade preferences currently reserved for eligible African nations by the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to all Least Developed Countries (LDCs) would be disastrous for African economic development.Speaking at the Leaders Forum on the 10-Year Anniversary of AGOA in Washington , DC , Dr. Collier described how proposed legislation in the US Congress to extend duty-free and...

South Africa's exports to the US are on the rise again after falling sharply last year, according to the US International Trade Commission. In the first two months of the year the value of local exports to the US rose 18 percent, compared with the same period in 2009, to $975.5 million (R7.2 billion). See link to data here.In the whole of last year, exports to the US fell to $5.9bn, from nearly $10bn in 2008.The major export was in the category minerals and metals, worth $3bn last year from more than $6bn the previous year.The sharp dip...

In a move designed to contribute to the revival of the cotton industry, Prime Minister Raila Odinga has directed government ministries and institutions to buy textile for staff uniforms from local industries.While pointing to the thousands of jobs that used to be generated by the local textile industries before the collapse of the sector, Mr Odinga expressed the government’s commitment to ensure that the industry thrives again.“We need to revive this industry which in the past offered jobs to thousands of Kenyans in the manufacturing of...

A decade after the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), a preferential US trade agreement, became law on 18 May 2000, there are questions over the benefits, if any, derived from the initiative.AGOA was touted by the US government as offering "tangible incentives for African countries to continue their efforts to open their economies and build free markets"; in return, selected countries could access US markets without restrictive quotas or import taxes.Neither Swaziland nor Lesotho had a textile sector before the advent of AGOA, but...

A decade has passed since the US trade initiative, the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa), expanded some countries’ economies like a balloon, bringing the largest manufacturing investments of any single time and tens of thousands of jobs, only to later deflate when the party seemed to be overAgoa offers duty-free access into the US market for African manufactured exports but Lesotho, Madagascar and Swaziland found the treaty has enticed mostly Asian-owned textile firms to invest in their countries. When the fortunes of these...

The Federal Government and the United States International Trade Commission (USITC), on Friday, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote trade under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye, signed the MOU on behalf of the (Nigerian) Federal Government, while the President of ITC, Mr. Wea Lee, signed on behalf of the Commission.The agreement came at the end of a two-day U.S.-Nigeria Business forum.The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the MoU would enhance...

For the past decade there has been a new scramble for Africa. Scrambling for Africa is nothing new. It reached its apogee in 1884 when 13 European powers and the United States convened at the palace of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to carve up the continent into spheres of influence. No African attended and decisions were announced as though the African people mattered not at all. Now things have changed a great deal. Europe and the USA no longer dominate the world and the new scramble involves fewer players as well as different...

Guidelines for grants that will be available to vehicle and component manufacturers through the Automotive Investment Scheme (AIS), which forms part of the government's new Automotive Production and Development Programme (APDP), have been completed.The scheme is meant to deepen the domestic automotive manufacturing industry.The South African government has also proposed to the US government that it roll over the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) for "a reasonable period of time".Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies confirmed this...

Thirty Gambian fashion designers and apparel producers are planning on attending a major textile expo in the United States of America in May.The delegation of Textile and sewn products Industry week (TASPIW) in Atlanta, Georgia would be in The Gambia, led by a representative of the US Embassy and an official of the ministry of Trade and Employment.The show will expose visitors to the latest equipment and technology in textile making and apparel production as well as to the high quality fabrics in the United States.The visit to the expo in...

When Kumar Dewapura, a renowned textile guru and the chairman of the Sri Lanka-based Tri-Star Group, landed in Uganda in 2002, two years after the US government unveiled the AGOA initiative, he was given the nation’s dream of exporting its first textile products to the mighty US market but most importantly, he was expected to help the country benefit from a fully-integrated textile industrial model.Dewapura traversed the country with the hope of buying into the existing textile factories of Lira Spinning Mill or the Mbale-based African...