$44.2b Goods Exported Under AGOA Thursday, 19 July 2007

Six years after the introduction of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) initiative, Africa has exported a total of 44.2 billion dollars worth of products to the United States.

Although there are 6,400 products that can be exported under AGOA by 39 eligible countries, so far fewer than 4,000 of such products are being exported by the 39 eligible countries.

Susan Schwab, US Trade Representative who led a delegation of 139 high-level technical officials to attend the 6th AGOA forum in Accra, said this yesterday when she addressed a joint press conference after the official opening of the two-day forum under the theme "As Trade Grows Africa Prospers: Optimising The Benefits Under AGOA".

The delegation was drawn from 16 states who work in the private sector and civil society organisations.

Ms Schwab said the forum was an opportunity to take stock of progress being made under the initiative and stimulate new trade opportunities between the eligible countries and the US.

"AGOA remains one of the series of initiatives that reflect the commitment of the US to development in Africa", she said adding that in 2001, Africa’s exports made up less than one per cent of imports into the US but "today it is about two per cent."

Ms Schwab said contrary to the perception that there was a concentration on the export of only petroleum products and garments and textiles, the export of non-oil products had seen a steady rise but conceded that it was important for African countries to take a second look at the product mix of their exports.

Reacting to concerns about the need to build the capacity of countries in expanding their export base, she said discussions at the plenary session centred on ways of addressing that problem she agreed that opening markets to Africa was not enough, adding that this informed the reason for coming with a large delegation of private sector operators and representatives of major retailers of garments, food products and food processing experts and not oil or mining interests.

"If our efforts will succeed, we must work closely with the private sector," she said.

The Minister of Trade, Industry and PSI, Alan Kyerematen at the ministerial session which was held two days prior to the forum suggested the setting up of an AGOA Fund and the introduction of other financial instruments to support in particular, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises that seek to produce for export under AGOA.

He said the main issue in the six years of the initiative has been the lack of supply capacity by African countries," a situation which such a fund could help to address.

Mr. Kyerematen noted that with the AGOA initiative expiring in 2015, it was important for countries to start deliberations with the US to explore ways of exploring opportunities for negotiating a Free Trade Agreement "that will rock in the benefits of AGOA on a more permanent basis."

Trade Ministers from the 39 AGOA qualified countries in sub-Saharan Africa, representatives of the private sector, Civil Society groups and US officials are using the forum to deliberate on ways of increasing trade between the US and Africa.

The AGOA, a legislative initiative which ends in 2015, is an opportunity created to open up the US market to eligible African countries to export over 6,400 duty-free and quota-free products and is estimated at more than 10 trillion dollars.