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Recently renewed by U.S. President Barack Obama, the African Growth and Opportunity Act allows qualifying African countries to export certain products to the U.S. duty free. American exports to Africa are subject to customs duties. Incoming President Donald Trump isn’t going to go for that, says Herman Cohen, a former U.S. ambassador to several African Countries. From This Day Live. Interview by Nduka Nwosu: Ambassador Herman Cohen was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under President George H.W...

The United States has strengthened its position as Kenya’s third-largest export destination — making it Nairobi’s most valuable economic partner outside East Africa. Kenya’s exports to the US grew seven per cent to Sh35.3 billion in the first 10 months of 2016 as exports to Britain tumbled by a similar margin to Sh30.9 billion, according to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data. The growth saw American consumers open a Sh4.4 billion gap over their counterparts in the UK, wider than the Sh2 billion in 2014 when the US...

Cosatu on Wednesday said it was deeply concerned by the pending jobs blood bath in the poultry industry, and also alarmed by government's "deafening silence" on a matter of the utmost national concern. This comes after Rainbow Chickens Limited, the country's biggest chicken producer, indicated that it would be retrenching 1 350 farm workers and close four farms in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal. The latest reports also indicated that a total of 50 000 food and farm jobs could be lost following the influx of cheap chicken imports from the...

For much of her childhood, Ntaoleng Moloi’s father was like a ghost. He missed birthdays and first days of school, family jokes and first snows. Months and then whole seasons passed without his presence. It felt, at times, like he was thousands of feet below the surface of her life, somewhere dark and unreachable.  That’s because, for much of the time, he was. Moloi’s father was a gold miner, and like many men of his generation in Lesotho — the mountainous speck of a country surrounded on all sides by South Africa — his life...

It has been an encouraging year for our partnership with Africa. Alongside our African partners, we have made significant progress advancing democracy, peace, and prosperity throughout the continent, though challenges, of course, remain. Let me share some of the highlights: YALI: The President’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) continued to have tremendous success. This year, we expanded YALI’s flagship program, the Mandela Washington Fellowship, from 500 to 1,000 participants. These YALI Fellows are ambitious and talented, and...

Text of proclamation reinstating the Central African Republic (relevant sections highlighted below) as a beneficiary country for AGOA purposes.  Section 915(b) of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (the "TFTEA") (19 U.S.C. 4454) confers authority upon the President to provide preferential treatment for eligible articles imported directly from Nepal into the customs territory of the United States if the President determines that Nepal meets the eligibility requirements specified in section 915(b)(1)(A) of the...

On 8 November, a long, drawn-out election cycle that spilled across borders and caught eyes across the world finally came to a close—and Donald J. Trump is the next President of the United States. The result took many by surprise, and not just the pollsters; markets plummeted over the next few hours, with the Dow Jones Industrial average dropping more than 800 points before recovering the next day. Now that some of the volatility has calmed, there is still deep uncertainty in place. Besides some choice plans for Mexico, Trump has not...

AGOA holds promise that Rwanda can bring down its ballooning import bill, but low production and fierce competition coupled with logistics challenges remain a major impediment. To deal with the challenges, Rwanda will introduce policy, technological and institutional innovations, said Minister of Trade, Industry and East African Affairs Francois Kanimba. However, reports indicate that exports to the US remain low, forcing US retailers to source from countries that supply large volumes. Combined, data from the National Bank of Rwanda shows...

An estimated 20,000 workers have taken part in demonstrations in Lesotho in a bid to end political instability that threatens the southern African nation's duty free access to the US through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The demonstrators are calling on the government to restore democracy and the rule of law after a coup in 2014. The US has already threatened Lesotho's access to AGOA if this does not happen, and the regional co- operations body, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), has also set out...

The inaugural Africa Trade Week ended Friday in Addis Ababa with the Economic Commission for Africa's Principal Economic Adviser, Joseph Atta-Mensah, urging the ECA and its partners to continue to empower African Member States in the art of trade negotiations as the continent strives to achieve sustainable development leading to inclusive economic growth and poverty eradication. Speaking at the end of ATW, a multi-stakeholder platform for the advancement of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) and intra-African trade, Mr. Mensah said...

For much of her childhood, Ntaoleng Moloi's father was like a ghost. He missed birthdays and first days of school, family jokes and first snows. Months and then whole seasons passed without his presence. It felt, at times, like he was thousands of feet below the surface of her life, somewhere dark and unreachable. That's because, for much of the time, he was. Moloi's father was a gold miner, and like many men of his generation in Lesotho - the mountainous speck of a country surrounded on all sides by South Africa - his life was cleaved...

South Africa’s success is a necessary condition for the progress of the African continent, according to outgoing United States ambassador to South Africa Patrick Gaspard. He was speaking at the Gordon Institute of Business Science recently. In one of his last addresses as the end of his tenure in the country approached, Gaspard said fears around the continued existence of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) trade agreement under the incoming Donald Trump administration were unfounded. South Africa and the United States have...

The (South African) Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies has emphasised the importance of export diversification and industrialisation in Africa. He was speaking in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he was moderating the Africa Trade Week Panel Discussion on Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA).  The session considered AGOA implementation over the remaining period of the legislation granting the trade preference up to 2025. It also reflected on the future of Africa-US trade relations...

Trade experts have said government needs to emphasise export trade rather than aid. Speaking during an Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) training workshop for the private sector and government agencies at Lake View Resort Hotel in Mbarara last week, former Ethics minister Mr Nsaba Buturo, said: "What I see in government is limited appreciation of trade matters yet the emphasis must be on trade not aid. It is exporting what you have that gives you respect and influence around the world but aid never achieves that." A member of the...

The first ever Africa Trade Week opened in Addis Ababa today with the Economic Commission for Africa's David Luke, urging participants to come up with solutions to unanswered questions about the Continental Free Trade Area. Speaking on behalf of Abdalla Hamdok, ECA Acting Executive Secretary Mr. Luke said the CFTA is a bold initiative aiming to bring together 54 African countries with a combined population of more than one billion people and a combined gross domestic product of more than U.S. $3.4 trillion. African leaders, with the CFTA,...

Stakeholder has expressed fears that Donald Trump’s emergence as United States (U.S.) president will pose a major threat to African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), urging Federal government to boost non oil sector and eliminate export barriers. AGOA, a United States’ trade policy, enacted in 2000 allows exporters from sub-Saharan Africa to export some goods to the United States duty-free. The export opportunity, which was supposed to last from 2000 to 2020, was extended to 2025. Under the policy, Nigeria emerged the 60th largest goods...

In a move to bridge skills gap and aid Nigeria’s participation in the extended African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), Executive Director of Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Olusegun Awolowo said the agency will continue its effort in ensuring that the nation’s skills deficit, particularly in fashion designing is addressed. Awolowo, who lamented that inadequate skills development was hampering economic growth in the country said that the agency has trained 75 candidates in fashion designing. AGOA, a legislation signed by...

Since Barack Obama was elected US President in 2008, Africa has considered him one of its own and has welcomed the various initiatives, like Power Africa, that have been put forward under his administration. But on November 8th, rather than having a continuation of the Obama administration, with Hillary Clinton, the American electorate has decided that the Republican candidate Donald Trump should be its 45th president. Countries and regions worldwide are concerned about the change in leadership in the USA, and the impact it will have on...

We can only speculate as to what extent the Donald Trump administration could affect the African continent. However, we believe the two main areas of concern based on Trump’s election rhetoric are foreign trade and US foreign assistance (US aid). Trump has openly voiced his unhappiness with both overseas aid and existing trade deals. Could AGOA be cancelled under Trump? Although vocal on existing trade deals, Trump has mentioned very little with respect to his stance on trade with Africa. Perhaps this is because in 2015, non-oil and gas...

President elect Donald Trump made scant mention of Africa during his campaign: in fact, his engagement with the continent has thus far been limited to a handful of Twitter posts. As such, any efforts to discern his Africa policy at this stage are speculative at best. However, there is a general consensus that because other, more pressing, priorities are likely to get in the way, Trump will be restrained from implementing radical changes to US-Africa policy. A more aggressive stance may be adopted should trade deals hit American jobs –...

Women in business have been encouraged to take advantage and participate in the lucrative US preferential trade scheme known as the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for better profits. African Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme (AWEP) chairperson, Chigedze Chinyepi said this when addressing women in business during AWEP’s capacity building workshop that was held at Tati River Lodge recently. Chinyepi said Botswana is one of the eligible countries, but businesses are failing to utilise AGOA. “This is worrisome; currently...

Across Africa, the approaching presidency of Donald Trump has provoked deep uncertainty over how the United States will pursue policies ranging from counter-terrorism and trade, to aid and climate change. Many African countries had high hopes that Barack Obama would bring transformative benefits to the continent and were left disappointed as he winds down his time in office. But Trump's rise to power poses fresh questions that reveal the lack of concrete detail on his foreign policy plans - while the president-elect himself has seldom...

Speaking this week during the validation workshop of the draft AGOA strategy in Gaborone, George Makore said the AGOA office should be headed by a coordinator to be assisted by experts in export development, investment promotion, and information dissemination. “The process of setting up the institutional structure should be initiated within 60 days of approval of the strategy,” he stated. While the ministry of investment, trade and industry will be the custodian of the AGOA response strategy, Makore said the implementation requires...

For Africa, at stake in this election of Donald Trump is the strong bipartisan consensus in Congress that has been the cornerstone of U.S. policy toward the continent for the last three administrations. This consensus, supported by Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama, was predicated on the notion that Africa has opportunities worth U.S. attention and investment. In the past two decades, Congress not only passed the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), but also enacted transformative initiatives such as the President's Emergency...