Originally published by ONE – Jun 16th, 2011

Being on the ground to mark the 10th AGOA Forum in Lusaka this past week, surrounded by business, government and non-governmental leaders dedicated to a trade and investment approach to African prosperity, gave us ample opportunity to reflect on how the relationship between Africa and the US has changed over the last 11 years.

It also served as a reminder that the annual AGOA Forum remains one of the few places where African and American stakeholders can exchange ideas on how trade can most effectively support development. The AGOA Forum reserves time each year to build consensus toward action and to set the tone for activities over the coming year.

The tone at this year’s forum increasingly emphasized finding intersections for deeper collaboration among AGOA’s stakeholders. Several new developments emerged from this year’s meeting, but each requires some additional thought and attention to take advantage of the underlying opportunity.

• The African Union (AU) was appointed the coordinating body for AGOA in Washington. This will be the first time a regional body has a clear mandate to represent African countries on AGOA in the US. This is a huge step forward for African advocacy for the legislation, particularly in a difficult political and economic climate in the US. While the AU has the strong leadership to provide a unified voice on behalf of the 41 AGOA-eligible countries, the AU requires many, many more resources to be empowered as AGOA advocates.
• The Obama Administration has finally put its weight behind, first, the renewal of the critical third-country fabric provision, and later, AGOA in full. AGOA as a whole is set to expire in 2015, but both the Obama Administration and African nations are bullish on AGOA’s chances of being extended. That extension will not only give Africa more time to expand manufacturing capacity, it will also provide current and prospective investors with the assurance that they will continue to benefit from AGOA’s quota- and duty-free access to the US market into the foreseeable future. The third country fabric provision allows African apparel manufacturers to create supply even if nascent domestic textile industries cannot meet demand. This provision expires in 2012. Most apparel supply chains, however, operate with nine months of lead time on orders, so without the administration following through on its commitment to immediate action with Congress on renewing the third country fabric provision, businesses currently sourcing in Africa may be forced to source elsewhere.
• Jointly-developed African and American ideas were championed -– and enthusiasm for shaking up norms was evident. On the final day of the Forum, Zambia’s President Rupiah Banda endorsed “Enterprise for Development.” “Enterprise for Development” is a proposal calling for a number of important enhancements to AGOA that was introduced in Washington last year by the AGOA Action Committee. Among the proposed changes was a recommendation to increase tax incentives for US businesses operating in Africa. Other calls for creative approaches that benefit both the US and Africa were echoed by the Minister for Trade and Industry of Ghana, the Hon. Hanna Tetteh. It is imperative that, through concerted and coordinated advocacy, we put our best thinking toward enhancing AGOA over the coming year, so that, in another ten years, AGOA will be a fully-realized, jointly-owned success.

We look forward to seeing how the expanded roles and responsibilities highlighted during this year’s Forum are absorbed -– and how quickly they translate into action over the coming year. To accelerate the process, we’d call for a clear outline of what each group of stakeholders will be expected to contribute. We’d especially like to see a commitment by the US government to: 1) hold next year’s AGOA Forum in a US commercial hub, like Chicago or Houston, and 2) publish a strong plan for bringing more American businesses to the table.

In many ways, AGOA’s path to success seems to be a series of individual sprints, with each annual AGOA Forum as an endline. With a clearly developed set of responsibilities and expected outcomes –- along with a strategy for executing against them –- Washington can help US businesses carry the baton forward in creating jobs in Africa and building global prosperity.