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THE PRESIDENT: Welcome to the White House, everybody. AUDIENCE: Thank you! THE PRESIDENT: You all look good. We have some of America’s biggest champions for a strong partnership with Africa here today -- members of the diplomatic corps from our African partners; we've got some outstanding members of Congress, leaders of business, NGOs, members of the faith community. Ambassador Olhaye -- I want to start by saying that tonight our thoughts are with our friends from Djibouti as we mourn the passing of Ambassador Olhaye. He served here...

Kenyan Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises are missing out on the African Growth and Opportunity Act for lack of trade partners, failure to meet international standards and financial constraints, the US National Business League has said. NBS vice president Malcolm Beech yesterday said only 10 per cent of Kenya's SME's are benefiting from Agoa, despite the initiative targeting them. According to Beech, oil and gas have dominated 90 per cent of commodities traded under Agoa between Africa and the US in the last fifteen years. "Agoa has...

The Obama administration is launching a sweeping "out-of-cycle" review of South Africa’s trade practices and commitment to market principles which could result in the country losing some, or all, of its benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). Among issues to be considered are complaints by US exporters that their products are being shut out of the South African market as a result of the South Africa-European Union trade, development and co-operation agreement. The scope of the review, to be announced by the office...

Kenya could start producing shoes for the United States market under the renewed quota-free and tax-free access to the multi-billion dollar footwear market. Abundance of skins and hides locally should enable Kenyan enterprises manufacture leather shoes for the US market, to enable the country expand the product offering beyond textiles under the African Growth Opportunity Act (Agoa). "We have sufficient supply of leather here that would enable us compete with China on footwear," Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed said. He had...

Angola's exports to the United States of America tripled in the 2004/2014 period, reaching Usd 115.39 billion last year. This was disclosed Tuesday in Luanda by the minister of Commerce, Rosa Pacavira, while addressing the seminar on "How to export to the USA and the African Growth and Opportunity Act". According to the official, the increase in exports has partly resulted from the country's joining AGOA established by the US Government. Rosa Pacavira said that statistics from the US Trade Department indicate that between 1985 and 2003,...

Kenyans’ celebrations that 20 companies will invest about Sh8 billion in the textiles industry after US President Barack Obama’s recent renewal of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) should be laced with a fair measure of realism. This is because past governments failed to help farmers take advantage of the opportunities. The result is that apart from the poorly paid factory employees and largely foreign investors, no one else makes much money. The hope, therefore, is that the current government — led by some of the...

The Namibian government is working on a strategy to take maximum advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) that has been extended till 2025, the Namibian Press Agency has reported. The original Act expires on September 30, 2015. “We are now developing an engagement strategy on how best we can benefit from AGOA as well as ready ourselves for post- 2025 for the new World Trade Agreement compatible arrangement,” director of international trade in the ministry of industrialisation, trade and small and medium enterprise...

The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) Wednesday welcomed the extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), which allows eligible countries from Sub-Saharan Africa to export some goods to the US without paying duty. President Barack Obama yesterday, at the White House, signed the Bill authorising the extension of the non-reciprocal trade preference programme for another 15 years. Kam’s CEO designate Ms Phyllis Wakiaga yesterday welcomed the gesture and said re-authorisation of the trade agreement would benefit eligible...

Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza’s continued disregard for the Arusha Agreement has resulted in dozens of deaths, the exodus of over 144,000 Burundians to neighboring countries, and a freefall in the Burundian economy causing suffering to millions of Burundians. The Burundian Government’s decision to push forward with the June 29 parliamentary elections despite the complete absence of the necessary conditions for credible elections and widespread calls, including from the African Union and United Nations, to delay the voting further...

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Well, welcome to the White House.   I thought we’d start off the week with something we should do more often -- a truly bipartisan bill signing.  (Applause.)  For six and a half years, we’ve worked to rescue the economy from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, to get it growing again and to rebuild it on a new foundation for prosperity. Today, our businesses have created more than 12 million new jobs in the past five years -- that's the longest streak of job...

In a rare bipartisan scene at the White House, President Barack Obama on Monday signed into law two hard-fought bills giving him greater authority to negotiate international trade deals and providing aid to workers whose jobs are displaced by such pacts. The measures were politically linked to secure bipartisan support for the trade legislation, and they set the stage for the Obama administration to conclude negotiations on a 12-nation Pacific Rim economic pact. "I thought I'd start off the week with something we should do more often, a...

The US Congress has renewed a 15-year-old law that allows made-in-Africa goods to sail into the U.S. duty-free. That makes Africa the latest continent wrapped up in a spree of trade legislation clearing through Congress. The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which had been due to expire at the end of September, gives sub-Saharan African nations duty-free access to U.S. markets for certain goods such as textiles. It was packaged with another bill to extend a program of assistance to American workers who are shown to be hurt by...

This has been a landmark week for furthering the President’s trade agenda.  Congress passed bipartisan legislation that sets a high bar for our trade negotiations, spurs sustainable economic development, trains American workers, and improves the enforcement of our trade laws to support American manufacturing.  Each of these initiatives is an integral part of using trade to unlock opportunity for America’s middle class and strengthen our leadership abroad. Through TPA, Congress has made clear what it expects in terms of...

Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Africa Subcommittee, issued the following statement after the House voted final passage of the reauthorization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA): “After years of tireless work and effective advocacy, our work in Congress to reauthorize the African Growth and Opportunity Act is now complete. I am proud that both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to reauthorize AGOA, sending the legislation to the President and...

It must come as a shock to many that, after the Trade Preferences Act passed both the Senate and House with 97 to 1 and 394 to 37 respectively, neither AGOA nor GSP are the law of these United States. Of course, those in the know understand that because there was a slight difference in the bill passed by the House over the Senate version, there was need for a conference in the bicameral body. Importantly, the real reason that AGOA has still not been renewed and enhanced is simply that its consideration has become enmeshed in the most...

The prospects for the reauthorization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) either improved or became more complicated on Tuesday, depending on whether you are a Republican or Democratic member of Congress. The key event was the vote by the Senate for “cloture,” or to end the debate on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which allows senators to give an up-or-down vote on trade legislation. The cloture vote passed by the slimmest margin after 13 out of 14 pro-trade Democrats joined 47 Republicans to vote in support of the...

Renewal of America’s trade agreement with sub-Saharan Africa isn’t the single biggest determinant of the fate of fast track authority in Congress this week, but it’s certainly in the mix. And the enormous popularity it’s enjoyed even among lawmakers generally opposed to current trade policies speaks volumes about how sloppily Washington as a whole develops trade agreements, and how the results can fail even intended foreign beneficiaries. The Africa trade deal – created by the African Growth and Opportunity...

Last week, Representative Karen Bass (D-CA) publicly urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to send the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to President Obama for his signature. Over the last several weeks, AGOA has passed both the Senate and the House with exceedingly strong bipartisan support. Representative Bass is absolutely right in her urgency. AGOA is a non-reciprocal preference program and has no relevance to the current debate in Congress over the Trade Adjustment Authority (TAA) and Trade Promotion Authority...

Congress is headed for several critical votes this week on President Obama’s trade agenda. These will be the latest twists in a ­several-month saga that has seen a majority of his own party turn against him while his long-standing adversaries have been going to extraordinary lengths to find ways to help him. For the second time in a month, the Senate will consider Obama’s much-sought Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), legislation that would grant him “fast-track” negotiating authority to complete global trade deals with limited...

US representatives at the Source Africa trade event last week were adamant local apparel manufacturers could sew up a viable patch of the growing US market. This should offer some encouragement to local clothing and textile manufacturers, whose profit margins continue to be eroded by the steady influx of cheaper imports from mainly the Far East. The view from US trade representatives coincides with a period of considerable weakness in the rand/dollar exchange rate and continuing negotiations to extend the African Growth and Opportunities...

US ambassador to SA Patrick Gaspard has been given repeated assurances by the government that the controversial Private Security Industry Regulation Amendment Bill will be sent back to Parliament for amendments. The bill has been with the Presidency for about a year since its adoption by the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces, and presidential spokesman Harold Maloka said on Thursday it was "still under consideration". The danger, however, is that SA’s position under the African Growth and Opportunity Extension Bill...

House Democrats are calling on the Senate to reject a plan to pass a worker aid bill that is the lynchpin to securing a "Fast Track" trade deal. Several House Democrats sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., urging them to refrain from attaching the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a bill giving preferred trade status to some African nations. The two measures may be tethered together in order to lure Democrats into passing TAA,...

Trade Adjustment Assistance legislation could be a casualty of efforts to stymie Trade Promotion Authority; now, some members fear the long-heralded African Growth and Opportunity Act could fall to the wayside, too. As pro-trade lawmakers from both parties in the House and Senate move ahead with an effort to pass “fast-track” negotiating authority Thursday using a complex procedural maneuver, some skeptical Democrats are raising concerns the TPA maneuvering endangers the renewal of AGOA, a...

Earlier this year the House of Representatives and the United States Senate demonstrated the very best of bipartisanship by voting overwhelmingly for a 10-year extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). These votes were the result of years of work from senators and members of the House from both sides of the aisle, the African Diplomatic Corps, African heads of state, members of African governments, the Obama Administration and countless African Diaspora who organized and spoke with a powerful voice that AGOA needed to be...

The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly voted in favour of approving a 10-year extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).According to media reports, lawmakers from both Democratic and Republican parties supported the legislation during a vote last week, but the Senate still needs to pass the House Bill before President Obama can sign it into law.“Nearly 400 members of the House of Representatives voted to support extending AGOA. “This incredible bipartisan vote was the result of years of work,”...

For observers of international relations and trade policy issues, there was not much to catch the attention in President Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation address in February. Four months later, however, it is interesting to note that Zuma may have been in on a secret when it comes to African relations with the US. He said: "The renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) beyond September 2015 and a pledge to support African-led peace initiatives in the continent are among the significant outcomes of the US-Africa Leaders’...