US raises annual AGOA quota for qualifying textiles
The US has set new 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 year from 1 October 2017 to 30 September 2018.
For apparel articles wholly assembled in one or more beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries from fabric wholly formed in one or more beneficiary countries from yarn originating in the US or one or more beneficiary countries, the new FY 2018 annual limit is 2,022,822,376 square metres equivalent (SME) – a rise of 2.9% on the previous year.
Of this amount, 1,011,411,188 SME is available for apparel articles imported under the AGOA third-country fabric provision, a special rule for lesser-developed countries that provides preferential treatment for apparel articles assembled in one or more lesser-developed beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries, regardless of the country of origin of the fabric used.
Apparel articles entered in excess of these quantities will be subject to otherwise applicable tariffs.
See more apparel trade data on AGOA.info at this link.