Options for Congressional Consideration to Improve Textile and Apparel Sector Competitiveness under the African Growth and Opportunity Act Continue reading
Will Global Recession Damage US-Africa Trade Ties?
Published at allafrica.com
by Paul Collier and Rosa Whitaker
Writing after last week’s United States-Africa trade forum in Nairobi, Paul Collier and Rosa Whitaker call on both the U.S. and African nations to craft a meaningful strategy to prevent better trade relations from becoming “a casualty of the recession and of the drift towards political expediency and protectionism.”
This week in Nairobi, Kenya, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led a US delegation to the 8th Annual African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum. This Forum, a meeting of US and African ministers, business and civil society leaders, was created as part of AGOA — the first comprehensive US trade policy towards Africa. Continue reading
Marketing and Branding for African Exporters
At last week’s 8th Annual AGOA Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, TWG Managing Director Aubrey Hruby joined a distinguished panel of speakers from such organizations as USAID’s West Africa Trade Hub, South African sourcing agent Cool Ideas, and the Kenya ICT Board to address the topic “Development of and Access to AGOA Export Markets.” Continue reading
The New Global Reality: Africans Lead the Way at the AGOA Forum
Kenyan PM Odinga addresses the AGOA Forum. Source: KICC, 2009 AGOA 8th Forum.
The world has come to expect strong and dynamic leadership from the Obama administration. In the campaign, they promised to bring change and new ideas to domestic and international policy and to redefine and recalibrate the US’s role in the world. At the 8th Annual AGOA Forum-the annual US-Africa Summit-held this week in Kenya, however, it was the African leaders who broke new ground. Continue reading
Not On My Watch
Published at allafrica.com – Trade Talk with Rosa Whitaker
by Rosa Whitaker
As the Obama Administration develops its Africa and trade policies, it is critical that it resists pressure from some development advocates and members of Congress to support legislation that extends the duty-free access to the US market enjoyed by African nations under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to all Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Continue reading
Trade-Led Growth and Development, Even in a Recession
By Meg Dallett
Amidst the omnipresent news stories about countries and industries suffering in the global economic crisis, there’s good news coming out of East Africa: according to the African Development Bank’s African Economic Outlook 2009, growth for the region is expected to be about 5.5% for this year. This is much, much better than almost every other region in the world is expected to do. Continue reading
President Obama’s Emerging Africa Policy
Published at allAfrica.com – Trade Talk with Rosa Whitaker
by Rosa Whitaker
Slowly but surely, President Obama’s Africa policy is beginning to take shape. In my twenty-five years of work on African economic issues, I’ve seen consecutive US Administrations become increasingly more committed to Africa’s development. I don’t believe President Obama will be an exception. The fact that his overall foreign policy is driven by experienced-hands with Africa expertise gives reason to believe that Africa will be well-integrated and supported within the broader US foreign and economic policy construct. Continue reading
Why Africa Needs Market Access
by Paul Fakes
The World Trade Organization recently released its 2008 International Trade Statistics. At a glance, you can see not only that Africa remains isolated from global trade (Africa represents only 3% of trade worldwide), but that the continent is still making little progress in expanding regional trade. While regional economic communities are implementing substantive measures to reduce barriers to intra-African trade, it will be some time before regional free trade agreements are fully implemented, not to mention the continuing need for substantial infrastructure investment to reduce the costs of regional trade. Continue reading
Africa: The Unsung Piece of Jack Kemp’s Legacy
by Rosa Whitaker
Congressman Jack Kemp will be remembered for many things, but for me, Jack Kemp will always personify a particular vision of an Africa enjoying the prosperity that only integration can deliver, a full and active partner in the global community.
I was privileged to work with Congressman Kemp to make that vision a reality-first in the late 1990s, when he was one of the main advocates working with me in a bipartisan effort to pass the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and more recently as co-chair with me of the AGOA Action Committee advocating for enhancements to the legislation. Continue reading
African Finance Officials Outline Strategy to Weather Global Economic Crisis
Tanzanian Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, Mr. Mustafa Mkulo
African Finance Ministers and central bankers in Washington last week for the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were cautiously optimistic that with careful fiscal policies at home and support from multilateral institutions and international donors, many African countries will be able to weather the global economic downturn and even emerge from it stronger than before. Continue reading
Watch Your Trade Preferences
by Paul Fakes
Making sense out of the current hodgepodge of U.S. trade preference programs, which include the Generalized System of Preferences, the Caribbean Basin Initiative, the Andean Trade Preference Act, and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), is generally one of the last things on the congressional ‘to do’ list any given year; even more so in the middle of a global recession. However, the Obama Administration’s outline of The President’s Trade Policy Agenda provides hope that trade preference reform may stake out a place on the congressional agenda in the 111th Congress. Continue reading
AGOA’s Next Chapter
The US International Trade Commission just released the 2008 numbers for US-Africa trade under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and I’m pleased to report that AGOA exports from sub-Saharan Africa are up 30 percent from 2007 to $66.3 billion. Non-oil exports increased 51 percent, largely due to South Africa’s rising position as a transportation equipment manufacturer. Continue reading
It’s the Manufacturing Sector, Stupid
by Paul Fakes
The United Nation’s Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) released its 2009 Industrial Development Report this week – among other things, it notes how the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has been successful in promoting development of the African apparel manufacturing sector. The generous rules of origin and duty-free market access allowed under AGOA have spurred the apparel sector in several sub-Saharan African countries, creating thousands of jobs in the most impoverished countries in the world – all through the power of the marketplace. Continue reading
Op-ed: Fixing U.S. Trade Benefits for the Poorest of the Poor
By Rosa Whitaker
Despite high profile work on the global financial crisis, the U.S. Congress rightly acted last week to remove restrictions on apparel exports from certain least developed African countries. The change comes after almost two years of pleas from U.S. and African government and apparel industry leaders. Passage of these provisions by both the House and Senate is a welcome short term focus on the challenges to economic development through trade in Africa, especially as Congress typically avoids all votes on trade on the eve of elections. Continue reading
TWG Convenes Leading African CEOs for an Unprecedented Discussion: Mobilizing African Capital
Mobilizing Africa’s considerable capital resources has long been identified by African business and development groups as a key element to unlocking the continent’s potential for sustainable economic growth. The Sixth Annual AGOA Ministerial Forum, being held in Accra, Ghana from July 18-19th, brings together business and government leaders from Africa and the United States, as well as fund managers from both sides of the Atlantic, to advance investment and trade linkages, policy dialogue and strategies to boost Africa’s position in the global economy. Finance has been identified as one of the key issues for discussion at the Forum, which The Whitaker Group — an organization at the forefront of facilitating trade and investment in Africa – will help facilitate with an exclusive lunchtime panel featuring some of Africa’s most noted visionary CEOs. Continue reading
TWG and US Chamber of Commerce Facilitate Historic Trade Visit By African Ministers To West Coast Multinationals
A high level delegation of trade and finance ministers and other trade officials from five of Africa’s most economically dynamic countries made an unprecedented visit to Seattle, San Francisco and San Jose last week (April 16 -20) to engage in aggressive commercial diplomacy with some of the largest corporate players in northern California and Washington state.
The delegation – from Burundi, Ghana, Lesotho, Mauritius and Uganda – represented the largest and most concerted effort by African countries to engage West Coast multinationals. All have business-friendly climates and growing economies, and have been aggressively courted by China, India and other nations eager to gain access to Africa’s resources and increasingly prosperous markets. The West Coast tour was a prelude to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum to take place in Accra, Ghana, in July. Continue reading
