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Continuing a trend of accelerated growth, Ethiopian exports to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in 2008 more than doubled from 2007.From January to December 2008, Ethiopia’s AGOA exports reached USD $18 million, surpassing USD $8.9 million in AGOA exports during the 2007 calendar year. Total Ethiopian exports to the U.S. also rose 172 percent, to USD $152 million from USD $88 million the year before.“This is a huge accomplishment. Ethiopia is one of the few African countries to show such a steady,...

THE Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola recently said that the Federal Government would give the textile industry a N70 billion bailout not in cash but in the form of bank guarantee to enable the sub-sector get back into operation. Indeed, said the minister, an inter-ministerial group is already in place to bring this idea to fruition. This is too little coming too late. Two years ago, investors in the textile industry called on the Federal Government for help, but they were ignored until one after the other, Nigeria's textile...

Trade with Africa will be the focus of a conference this month at Monterey Institute of International Studies sponsored by the nonprofit Monterey Bay International Trade Association.The Trade and Investment with the AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act) Countries in Africa Conference is scheduled 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday in the institute's Irvine Auditorium. Among the participants will be James Kiiru, commercial attache of the Embassy of Kenya, and Lerato D. Mataboge, economic minister of the Embassy of South Africa, in Washington,...

Uganda's tariff and quota-free exports to the US under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) may be suspended due to massive job losses by American workers, an American scholar has predicted.Prof. Nelson Kasfir from Dartmouth College told a public lecture at Hotel Africana in Kampala that president Barack Obama was likely to encourage job creation in the US by suspending AGOA imports.“A 600,000 monthly job loss in the US is big. The alternative is likely to be reverting such jobs under AGOA to American citizens,” Kasfir...

Kenyan textile exporters are preparing to take advantage of a crumbling US textile sector which has recorded closures of 13 firms and 10,000 job losses in the last six months alone.Apparel producers in Kenya say the US economic slump has offered local garment manufacturers an opportunity to fill the gap left by the collapsed textile firms.“The cut-down on production in the US is good for Kenyan apparel manufacturers, it will create several opportunities,” says Jonathan Chifalu, the public relations officer at the Export Processing Zones...

The United States of America on Thursday announced its decision to assist the Benue State government to enhance agricultural production, especially in the area of processing and export as part of strategies to enable the state benefit from trade opportunities under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).The decision was the outcome of a meeting in Makurdi between the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Rabin Sanders and the Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam.A statement from Cletus Akwaya, Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs to the...

Textile firms have been locked out of business opportunities following a decision by manufacturers not to attend a major fair in South Africa.Buyers from the US and Europe will attend the April 21 fair organized by the USAid Southern Africa Global Competitiveness Hub, which was expected to boost the local textile sector.However, this will not happen since local textile manufactures claim that their lobby Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), kept them in the dark regarding the South African textiles trade fair.“We are not attending...

The inability of Nigerian products to meet the global market basic export standard has hindered the country from tapping the benefits that are supposed to accrue to it from the African Growth and Opportunity Act(AGOA), United States Of America Ambassador to Nigeria,Hon. Robin Sanders stated at the weekend.The Ambassador who paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Chief Achike Udenwa, in his office, in Abuja, also noted that Nigeria's over dependence on the oil sector has made her pay less attention to the...

Kenya will host the 8th annual African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) meeting this year, the Trade Minister has said. Mr Amos Kimunya said the country has been chosen to host the economic forum to review the impact of the scheme as well as chart forward new ways on how to take advantage of the existing opportunities created by the Act.He said the Agoa meeting will help the country to discuss and strengthen information exchange links between different countries.Grow businessThe minister spoke during the official opening of parliamentary...

Brainstorming on diversification dates back decades. Suggestions on this subject for all we know fall on deaf ears. The ruling elites’ as well as those involved in oil supply chain business’ robust appetite for the business of petroleum will not allow this happen. And diversification we must go, most especially now. Who cares?In the early days of Yar’Adua’s administration, this writer ran a series of articles to intimate Mr President on the pressing need to buy into diversification. His response to this call is his much-talked-about...

Coffee exports to America will not be adversely affected by the current global financial meltdown, an expert said on Tuesday. Mr David Walker, a consultant in coffee and tea told stakeholders in the sector at Panafric hotel said that the challenge for the country was to market its coffee in America where the sales remained low. “Kenya is already producing specialty coffee and it has gained acceptance in the American market, what is needed is aggressive marketing to increase the sales. You have to move the coffee to a level of selling...

In order to make Nigeria one of the 20 largest economies by the year 2020, there is need to accelerate the growth of non-oil export to a double digit as well as enabling the government to achieve its seven-point agenda.Minister of Commerce and Industry, Chief Achike Udenwa, who expressed this view in a keynote address at a one-day sensitisation workshop on how Nigerian non-oil exports can have more access to the United State at the NACCIMA headquarters in Lagos last week also stated that promoting the development of non-oil sector would lead...

It is incontrovertible that the Zimbabwean economy has been gravely shattered, and reduced to such appallingly low levels that millions are starving, cholera exists more widely than do basic food supplies.Much of the infrastructure (including electricity generation, water supply, telecommunications, health care services and education) verges on the edge of total collapse, and hyperinflation is higher than in any country throughout history.Swiftly, and in deliberate and blatant disregard for realities, government has sought to distance itself...

Nigeria’s foreign policy engagement with United States goes as far back as October 7, 1960 when Nigeria, to the surprise of many, chose the United States to perform the symbolic and crucial role of presenting the new Sovereign State, to the United Nations General Assembly. In performing this honorific duty, the then US Secretary of State, Mr. Christian Herter, noted that:The people of Nigeria have won their independence by demonstrating time and again in many fields, that Nigerians are anxious to enjoy the satisfaction of independence and...

Chief Executive Officer of Swaziland National Provident Fund Prince Lonkhokhela says he hopes that under the leadership of President Barack Obama there will be the promotion of fair trade to the continent, particularly the southern African region.He hoped that the United States of America will open up more of its markets for goods from the continent and that the purchase price will be mutually agreed and beneficial to the people of the two places.Prince Lonkhokhela said whilst he recognises the fact that Obama will have his own challenges...

Chief Executive Officer of Swaziland National Provident Fund Prince Lonkhokhela says he hopes that under the leadership of President Barack Obama there will be the promotion of fair trade to the continent, particularly the southern African region.He hoped that the United States of America will open up more of its markets for goods from the continent and that the purchase price will be mutually agreed and beneficial to the people of the two places.Prince Lonkhokhela said whilst he recognises the fact that Obama will have his own challenges...

The relations between Burkina Faso and the United States have reached a remarkable level under George W. Bush’s presidency, according to the bilateral cooperation director in Ouagadougou, Francois Oubida, hoping that the U.S president-elect Barack Obama who is sworn-in Tuesday, will usher in a new cooperation era. The closer relations between the two countries was marked by Blaise Compaore’s first official visit to Washington on 13-17 July 2008, since he came to power in 1987. During that historical visit, President Compaore had signed...

The legacy of the Bush administration's policy toward sub-Saharan Africa is partnership, according to Jendayi Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs.U.S. policy for the past eight years has been based on a "very solid, comprehensive and holistic" foundation of partnership that has improved the health and lives of Africans in many ways, she said.Frazer made that point in a January 14 interview with America.gov, just days before President Bush, Frazer and other administration officials make way for the new administration,...

The desire of President Umaru Yar'Adua to fund the nation's budget mainly from non-oil exports is quite laudable. This quest to depart from the usual reliance of funding our budget from crude oil sales is long over due given the economic crisis that engulfed the world recently.From rising cost of food items, crash in stock prices to an unprecedented high cost of living, it is crystal clear that any nation that fails to diversify its economy but depends solely on one source of revenue to drive its economy is laying a foundation for crisis and...

The desire of President Umaru Yar'Adua to fund the nation's budget mainly from non-oil exports is quite laudable. This quest to depart from the usual reliance of funding our budget from crude oil sales is long over due given the economic crisis that engulfed the world recently.From rising cost of food items, crash in stock prices to an unprecedented high cost of living, it is crystal clear that any nation that fails to diversify its economy but depends solely on one source of revenue to drive its economy is laying a foundation for crisis and...

Africans are yet to recover from the pinnacle of euphoria that they engulfed themselves with after the election of their "son", Senator Barack Obama, as President of the United States of America. It would be insane to argue that Africans were the only ones celebrating: here in America, we know that more 69.5 million people voted for Obama, a number who joined in celebrating his election, apart from the scenes from all over the world showing millions also celebrating this incredible achievement of a "son" of Africa. With the euphoria comes...

The transformation of the Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) programme into special economic zones (SEZs) has begun.So far, the EPZA board has started a staff organisation study, which will identify gaps and ultimately undertake staff reorganisation in line with Vision 2030 objectives.The process will in turn see increased investment, employment, tax revenue and the expansion of trade. Trade Permanent Secretary Cyrus Njiru, however, cautions that the positioning of the Authority to perform this new role will require a critical...

The gradual decline of the country’s textile industry has now become a cause for concern even with overseas markets.The local apparel industry has been marred with a string of challenges lately, some of which resulted in millions of Emalangeni lost out last year alone as a result of constant mass protest action by workers.The Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) in a newsletter posted in its website states that investors will have even more to worry about as this is only the tip of an iceberg of challenges faced by the sector in the...

“People ask me if I am really from Madagascar,” says Georges, smiling as he hangs one of his colorful, hand-woven raffia hats at his booth at the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Farmers Market on Davis Boulevard on a Saturday just past.Georges Raelisaona actually is a native of Madagascar, an island nation off the southeast coast of Africa. He studied at Marshall College in West Virginia and the University of Colorado.He and his wife, Fanjarivo Rakotonirina, started a small hat import company based in Boulder, Colo., in 2002. “We both...

Just under three weeks from now, Barack Obama takes office as the 44th president of the United States. When he does, he’ll face enormous problems and challenges. But will those challenges deflect much attention from sub-Saharan Africa?Professor David Shinn of George Washington University is a former US ambassador to Ethiopia. He spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua about the importance of the continent on the Obama agenda.“If looked at in isolation it’s very important. However, putting it in the context of all...

The United States will eliminate trade benefits for Mauritania in response to a military coup in August that toppled a democratically elected president, the White House said Friday. "I have decided to terminate the designation of Mauritania as a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country ... effective on January 1, 2009," President Bush said in a proclamation. Many sub-Saharan African countries are eligible under the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act to export goods to the United States without paying duties. Congress approved the...

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will soon be introduced to the electronic trading opportunities, Export Promotion Council (EPC) officials have revealed.EPC Chief Executive Officer Matanda Wabuyele said on Wednesday that through this platform which uses electronic commerce technologies, SMEs will be able to directly sell and expose their products to international buyers thus boost their export earning.“From the electronic trading opportunities, they will graduate to the global trade directory services which will give them enormous...

AS a large gathering of business executives from the public and private sectors was commencing in Arusha, sideline observers were wondering what the whole effort was geared to achieve, whether it is to inform investors from around the region (and even locally) of available potential in the region, or to showcase investment areas. The reason is that a few existing industrial ventures were closing down, and it is uncertain if the convening of an investment conference is to take note of that situation, or to ignore it. In what manner do current...

The Government of the United States of America (USA) appears to be unrelenting in its effort to assist Nigerians get out of the shackle of poverty. This is evident in the number of assistance the U.S. Government, through its Mission in Nigeria, has offered various institutions and individuals in recent time.For instance, the U.S. Ambassador Robin Renee Sanders, recently led a delegation of U.S. Government and the U.S. World Cocoa Foundation officials to Jalingo, Taraba State for a practical capacity building programme entitled, "Enhancing...

Under President George W. Bush, U.S. aid to Africa has more than doubled. The continent receives most of the funding from programs like the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). But some analysts say potentially the most successful U.S. initiative in Africa is not aid, but trade. Since 2000, sub-Saharan Africa has enjoyed broad access to U.S. markets due to the passage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The legislation expanded the number of tariff-free...

When, during a 2006 visit to Africa, Barack Obama was asked what he could do for Kenyans, his response was: “I am the senator from Illinois, not the senator from Kogelo.”This question and answer captures his complex relationship to Africa via Kenya. His symbolism demands that he be a global leader who will bring a measure of peace and well-being to the Third World, and therefore Africa.But in practice, his rule has to be dictated by US domestic and foreign policy needs that will often run counter to those of Africa. He will, after all,...

Global euphoria over the election of Barack Obama as US President George Bush's successor has been tempered somewhat by the realisation that the Democrats have not historically been overly keen on free trade.By helping kill off the Doha round of global trade talks in September, America has already opted to put the interests of its farmers before the future of the global trading system. Under a Democratic administration there is every prospect of a rise in protectionism as the US slides into recession and unemployment bites.Indeed, what...

A high percentage of firms that were involved in a Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) survey have either closed down or scaled down on their operations over the past decade as a result of the hostile investment climate in Kenya.According to the survey, approximately 72 percent of the firms have closed down while another 18 percent have scaled down on their operations.A survey that was conducted by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers in April this year (2008) reveals that a further five percent either relocated to other business...

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Seattle) reacted to the still unconfirmed reports that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-New York) has been named secretary of state in Barack Obama's administration by releasing a statement praising the choice, and touches on how it will help him in his function in congress.Read his full statement below. “There is no American more capable or better able to serve our nation as Secretary of State than Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and I enthusiastically applaud the news that she has accepted an invitation to serve from...

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) will conduct a review to identify yarns, fabrics, and other textile and apparel inputs that can be produced competitively in beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries through new or increased investment or other measures.The ITC, an independent, nonpartisan, factfinding federal agency, will deliver its report, Sub-Saharan African Textile and Apparel Inputs: Potential for Competitive Production, to the House of Representatives' Committee on Ways and Means, the Senate Committee on Finance, and the...

Trade negotiations are inherently tricky and require a delicate balance of selfish nationalism and generous multilateralism. SA, however, almost as a matter of course, chooses the latter over the former.Its position in the World Trade Organisation's stalled Doha talks are a case in point, as is its role in the impasse between the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the EU. SA trade negotiators will argue the point, but the reality is that, by siding with its less-developed neighbours in their battles against the world's major...

A two-day training seminar on the US Government Agricult ure Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) programme will be held here 14 and 15 November. The US Embassy in Banjul, in collaboration with USAID, the West Africa Trade Hub (WATH) and the government of the Gambia, put the seminar together, sources confirmed to PANA Thursday.“The objective of the seminar is to enhance the capacity of key beneficiaries of the AGOA programme in order to ensure effective and optimal utilization of the business opportunities AGOA is offering to the Gambia,”...

Barack Obama can make a soaring speech, but can he run a country?This is the other side of the anti- Obama campaign slogan – what has he done, what has he run?What he has done, and that in resounding fashion, is to get elected in an election where two-thirds of voters went to the polls, the highest percentage since 1908 and high for the United States. He swept through Republican states, uniting the varied minorities behind him and getting the youth to vote.Even if he did nothing else of any importance, the fact that he showed that the...

It has been all over the media. History was rewritten last week by a son of the soil, as they say in Afro-speak. Barack Obama born in Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a Kenyan father from Kogelo village, in the Siaya district of western Kenya, is the US's 44 president-elect.Kenya declared November 5th, a national public holiday in Kenya soon after Republican Party presidential contender John McCain conceded defeat.All the East African leaders have congratulated Mr. Obama. Celebrations across the continent abounded through out the...

Barack Obama's historic win as America's first black president inspires pride among Africans, but analysts say it will not translate into concrete US policy changes to benefit the continent.While many Africans might expect Obama, born to a Kenyan father and a white American mother, to improve relations with the continent simply by virtue of his background, analysts say he will be constrained in his actions. Political analyst Daniel Silke said that once in the White House, Obama will find his options for dealing with Africa limited by broader...

The continent is celebrating Obama’s win as its own, but he will have to prove his commitment to its poor is deeper than his predecessors’, writes S’thembiso Msomi.It was the legendary intellectual WEB Du Bois who, in 1903, wrote that the “problem of the 20th century is the problem of the colour line”.Barack Obama’s historic victory in the US presidential election yesterday proved that the US and the world have made significant progress since the distinguished African-American wrote those words more than a century ago.In a...

The election of Barack Obama as US president-designate has renewed hopes that free trade talks between the US and the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) will be restarted. However, Trudi Hartzenberg, the director of the Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa, said the economic climate was not favourable to an outcome soon on the Doha round. Institute for Global Dialogue researcher Brendan Vickers said Obama had taken a conservative line on protecting US workers and a huge shift on Doha was unlikely, but Obama was likely to strengthen the...

Kenya expects US President elect Barrack Obama’s administration to support the current trade arrangements under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).Deputy Prime-Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said the Government would work closely with the new administration to expand the trade pact that has generated thousands of jobs mainly within the Export Processing Zones (EPZs)."As the current chair of the African Consultative Group of Ministers on African Growth Opportunity Act, I look forward to a close working relationship with President-Elect...

The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) on Wednesday said that a Barrack Obama Presidency will create and strengthen existing trade relationship between Kenya and United States of America (USA).Speaking in Nairobi, KEPSA chairman Steve Smith exuded confidence that Obama has the ability to reverse the current global financial crisis.“An Obama Presidency means more trade opportunities for Kenya,” adding that cooperation between the two countries will be strengthened.Smith cited the strengthening of the “Open Skies Agreement” that...

US trade policy with Africa has been a peripheral issue in this presidential campaign, making it unclear if South Africans should be rooting for Barack Obama or John McCain as Americans go to the polls today.The US has grown into this country’s largest customer during George Bush’s presidency, thanks to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) — meaning the outcome of this election may have huge repercussions for our economy.Imports from SA have cracked $9-billion a year, according to US government statistics. The Department of...

Cashew has become an important agricultural commodity in its purest industrial sense and though this fact is highly esteemed in many countries the world over, Ghana is yet to tap into the rich potentials of this cash crop which has great benefits for the individual and the country as a whole. Agriculture accounts for over 60% of Ghana's economic success which is more than half of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and also, agricultural products form a large chunk of commodities for export. The country concentrates mainly on cocoa,...

Johannesburg - Zackie Achmat, South Africa's best-known HIV/AIDS campaigner, makes no bones about who he'd like to see become US president on November 4.Achmat met Senator Barack Obama when he visited South Africa as part of his four-country Africa tour in 2006 - a trip best remembered elsewhere for the rapturous reception he received in Kenya, homeland of his father.'I fell in love,' Achmat confesses in a telephone interview.Such is his admiration for Obama that Achmat's Treatment Action Campaign, an organization that lobbies for improved...

Last week, the leaders from COMESA, SADC and East African Community (EAC) blocs converged in Uganda and agreed to expedite the formation of a free trade area. They also want to form a single customs union stretching from South Africa to Egypt. In their wisdom, it was the absence of such an arrangement that is frustrating trade among their countries.Economic blocs and integration are very good for business, but African countries appear to be jumping the gun here.The same countries aspiring to become part of a 26-member bloc have failed to...

Trade between Tanzania and the United States declined by 57.2 million dollars over the last eight months, a fall of about 10 million dollars recorded a similar period last year, APA learnt here Sunday.Statistics obtained at the US foreign trade division here, said the 2008 exports were lower than that of 2007, although there was a fall of imports from the United States.During the eight months of 2008, Tanzania exported goods and services worth 97.7 million dollars down from 100.5 million dollars recorded in 2007.The US exports to Tanzania...