Zambia: AGOA Paying Off
Zambia's Government says the African Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA) has played a major role in increasing exports in some Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) countries whose current figures stand at US$752 million compared to $457 million in 2002.
Commerce, Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Eugene Appel said yesterday that COMESA exports under AGOA stood at $880.5 million in 2003 from $456.7 million in 2002, indicating an increase of 52 per cent.
He said this when he officiated at the eighth meeting of inter-governmental committee of experts held at the COMESA secretariat in Lusaka yesterday.
"By the end of the first quarter of the year 2004, COMESA exports under AGOA stood at $752 million, which indicates that 2004 exports will by far outstrip the 2003 figures," he said.
He challenged COMESA member states to take advantage of the opportunity given by the American government extending AGOA 2015 and the 'Third Country Fabric' under the textiles and garment provision from 2004 to 2007 to expand trade.
Mr Appel said attracting investment in the region had remained a major challenge as the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flow was at an average of $3.9 billion since 2000 with Angola and Sudan attracting $2.8 billion of this amount mainly in the petroleum industry.
"The remaining 17 COMESA countries attract only $1 billion. For this reason the COMESA common investment area was an important part of our strategy for improving the regional investment climate," he said.
And COMESA secretary general Erustus Mwencha said to increase production of goods and services for both intra-COMESA and extra-COMESA trade, it was necessary to increase investment.
He said there was substantial progress in establishing a common investment area that would provide a common regional policy and regulatory environment making the region conducive to both domestic and Foreign Direct Investment.
Mr Mwencha said food security had remained one of the major challenges because of the prevalence of cyclical bumper harvest and famine which characterised the region.
He, however, noted that the meeting of ministers of Agriculture which was held in Nairobi in October this year made a decision to tackle the problem through increased agricultural production by using both rain-fed and irrigation farming and promotion of agro processing.
Latest AGOA Trade Data currently available on AGOA.info
Click here to view a sector profile of Zambia’s bilateral trade with the United States, disaggregated by total exports and imports, AGOA exports and GSP exports.
Other regularly updated trade statistics on AGOA.info include: (click each link to view)