Following the first full year of the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) programme in 2001, Sub- Saharan African producers exported additional goods worth $8b to the United States.

This was said by Theodore Nkodo, the vice-president of the African Development Bank's operations in the north, east and south.

Nkodo said the growth represented a 62% increase over the previous year.

He said this at a recently concluded Africa conference on food security at Munyonyo.

Nkodo said as a result of AGOA, USA now trades more with Africa than former Eastern Europe nations.

"The initial results from AGOA are encouraging and confirm that given a fair chance, African produce can compete on the world market," he said.

Nkodo said high taxes, limited access to foreign markets and non-tariff barriers have contributed to poor supply and unstable and low household incomes in Africa.

He said it's estimated that in 2001, the expenditure of the European Union on agricultural subsidies and other support programmes was six times the amount earmarked for development assistance to developing countries.

Nkodo said the various forms of trade barriers like tariffs, quotas and phyto-sanitory restrictions were the major constraints to the penetration of the developed countries' markets by African produce.

"It's generally agreed that the fragmented small markets of most African countries cannot be competitive. The potential for small scale economies at the regional level is quite large. Efficient intra-continental trade would be a vital first step towards building Africa's capacity to compete on the world market," he said.

Latest AGOA Trade Data on AGOA.info


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