The Seventh Forum of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act(AGOA) will convene in Washington from July 14 to the 16.First enacted into law in 2000, AGOA is the U.S. trade andinvestment policy that provides trade preferences to designated Africancountries that are making progress in the areas of economic, legal and humanrights.
But critics said AGOA is yet to fulfill its once promising potential.
The theme of this year's AGOA Forum is"Mobilizing Private Investment for Trade and Growth in Africa". DeputyAssistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Todd Moss, said the UnitedStates continues to lead in supporting Africa's economic growth through AGOA.
"Under AGOA,eligible countries can export any product to the United States duty-free. Rightnow that's nearly 6,500 products, from apparel and footwear to fruit. AGOA alsoprovides a framework for technical assistance to help countries take greateradvantage of trade preferences. Last year 2007, over 98 percent of US importsfrom AGOA-eligible countries entered this country duty-free," he said.
Mosssaid a total of 41 Sub-Saharan African countries are currently eligible toparticipate in AGOA. He says total trade between the United States andSub-Saharan Africa rose to more than $81 billion in 2007, with $51 billion ofthat coming from AGOA imports.
Hesaid even though petroleum products accounted for the largest portion of AGOAimports, non-oil AGOA trade totaled $3.4 billion in 2007, more than doublingthe amount in 2001.
Mosssaid the Forum provides an avenue for active discussion on how to make AGOAmore beneficial.
"Thisevent would bring together senior U.S. officials, African government ministers,as well as U.S. and African business and civil society stakeholders to acceleratethe exchange of ideas and information critical to AGOA's continued success andindeed to Africa's continued economic success," Moss said.
Butcritics said AGOA has yet to fulfill its once promising potential. President ofthe Constituency for Africa Melvin Foote said AGOA has been taken over by bigcorporations.
"Ithink AGOA had some promise when it came into being. We really were thinkingabout African American entrepreneurs, we were thinking about small business, wewere thinking about women-own entrepreneurs. We were thinking about businessthat can match more adequately with entrepreneurs on the continent of Africa.But what has happened basically is business as usual. The larger companiesdominated AGOA where it had impact," he said.
StillFoote said one good thing about AGOA is that it has kept the United States andAfrica talking every year, which he said has led to other good things forAfrica, such as the passage of HIV / AIDS legislation and support for the fightagainst malaria.
Oneof the workshops at this year's AGOA Forum will look at why more Africanagricultural products are not exported to the United States and what can bedone to improve that.