Ten years after the enactment of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a group of its original architects and supporters from Congress, the US government and the private sector, as well as members of the African diplomatic corps, met on Capitol Hill to celebrate its success in spurring economic development in Africa and to call for a recommitment to protect, extend and expand the landmark legislation. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Apparel
Collier Warns Against Expanding AGOA to Non-African Least Developed Countries
Eminent development economist Dr. Paul Collier, Director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, warned last week that expanding the trade preferences currently reserved for eligible African nations by the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to all Least Developed Countries (LDCs) would be disastrous for African economic development. Continue reading
Notes from “Leaders Forum on the 10-Year Anniversary of AGOA”
April 26, 2010
Washington, DC
On April 26th, The Whitaker Group and the AGOA Action Committee co-hosted a Leaders Forum with the Africa Coalition for Trade, the African-American Unity Caucus, the Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa, the Constituency for Africa, the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation, Manchester Trade, and the Corporate Council on Africa to address remaining challenges in trade-based development for Africa and a way forward for US-Africa economic policy. The coalition also unveiled a comprehensive Africa economic policy recommendation for the Obama Administration, found here. Continue reading
Enterprise for Development: A New US Policy Approach Toward Africa
On April 26, 2010, the AGOA Action Committee introduced a new six-pronged Africa policy framework entitled “Enterprise for Development: A New US Policy Approach Toward Africa,” or EnDev. The proposal will be presented to the Obama Administration and Congress in support of their on-going work to strengthen and enhance expanded US engagement, trade, investment and proven poverty alleviation efforts with Africa. Continue reading
AGOA’s Architects Unveil New Africa Economic Policy for Obama Administration
Ten years after the enactment of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a coalition of its original architects and supporters on Monday unveiled a comprehensive new trade and economic policy to be presented to the Obama Administration that would build on AGOA’s successes and expand the growing trade relationship between Africa and the United States. Continue reading
Moving Forward into AGOA’s Second Decade
This week TWG helped to organize and to co-host two back-to-back events that brought together an amazing coalition of people from Africa, the US and beyond to plan the strategy for AGOA as it moves forward into its second decade, and to discuss ways to maximize capital flows to Africa and give the African Diaspora vehicles to use remittances to invest in Africa’s development. Continue reading
“A Call to Action:” Remarks on AGOA by Rosa Whitaker
“Leaders Forum: AGOA and the Way Forward on U.S.-Africa Economic Policy”
April 26th, 2010
The Willard InterContinental Hotel, Washington DC
Remarks by Rosa Whitaker
Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen, Honored Guests. I would like to begin by welcoming you all and by thanking my co-hosts for their support of this event: The AGOA Action Committee, the Africa Coalition for Trade, the African-American Unity Caucus, the Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa, the Constituency for Africa, the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation, Manchester Trade, and the Corporate Council on Africa. Continue reading
How Not to Use Trade Preferences
By Patrick Costello
The report on trade preference programs recently released by the Center for Global Development, while making a number of sound recommendations for reforming and harmonizing the myriad of preference programs extended to the developing world from “rich countries,” contains several points that would be harmful to nations benefiting from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Continue reading
Delaying the Trade Preference Reform Debate
By Patrick Costello
As 2009 comes to a close, Congress is poised to pass a one-year extension for the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), both of which are set to expire on December 31, 2009. Despite rhetoric calling for reform from Senate Finance Committee Republican leadership, a full-day Congressional hearing on the issue, and the introduction of legislation harmonizing preference programs and extending benefits to non-African LDCs, Congress has decided to pitch the reform discussion to next year. Continue reading
Congress Daily – Reaction to McDermott Bill Harsh, Muted
By Peter Cohn
Congress Daily
November 20, 2009
African nations and domestic textile interests wasted no time slamming the first serious legislative attempt in the 111th Congress to overhaul U.S. trade preferences, while Bangladesh, a key player on the opposite side of the debate, was lukewarm. Continue reading
Debunking Myths About AGOA
Published at allafrica.com – Trade Talk with Rosa Whitaker
by Rosa Whitaker
In the aftermath of the annual AGOA Forum held last month in Nairobi, there has been a chorus of pessimists placing AGOA in the Hall of Shame of failed policy initiatives. They could not be more wrong.
In fact, AGOA is among the most successful US policies towards Africa-especially in terms of a return-on-investment ratio. According to the OECD, over the past 50 years the US has spent well over $325 billion dollars in foreign aid to Africa – yet Africa remains the only region of the world getting poorer. The returns on investments from US aid have been dismal. Continue reading
Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report Recommends Extending AGOA Trade Preferences to Boost African Apparel
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
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
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
Lesotho Update Fall 2008
The $362.6 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact, signed in July 2007 between the Governments of Lesotho and the United States, was formally launched in September in Maseru with the first disbursement of the five-year agreement. The compact program will fund about 17 projects focused on bringing clean and safe water to mainly urban households, increasing the manufacturing sector through a lowlands waterproject, improving the health infrastructure and services for poor rural communities, and expanding economic activity for private sector development by improving access to finance, especially for women.
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
Deputy Prime Minister Archibald Lehohla of Lesotho Launches the “Made in Lesotho” Brand
On September 26, 2007, The Honorable Deputy Prime Minister Archibald Lehohla of the Kingdom of Lesotho officially launched the “Made in Lesotho” branding campaign. The event hosted by the Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC), in close cooperation with The Whitaker Group (TWG) took place during the Material World Trade Show in New York at a private reception held at 5:00pm. Continue reading
