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About AGOA
 The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is a United States Trade Act that significantly enhances U.S. market access for (currently) 40 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. The Act originally covered the 8-year period from October 2000 to September 2008, but amendments signed into law by U.S.President George Bush in July 2004 further extend AGOA to 2015. At the same time, a special dispensation relating to apparel was extended by three years to 2007. On 20 December 2006, key changes to AGOA were signed into law, extending the garment provisions to 2012. In June 2007, a revised textile certificate of origin was published to give effect to the "abundant supply" provisions contained in the most recent legislative changes. These changes were repealed in 2009. A new Bill was recently published - click here for proposed changes.
AGOA builds on existing U.S. trade programs by expanding the (duty-free) benefits previously available only under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) program. Duty-free access to the U.S. market under the combined AGOA/GSP program stands at approximately 7,000 product tariff lines, including the roughly 1,800 product tariff lines that were added to the GSP by the AGOA legislation.
Notably, these include items such as apparel and footwear, wine, certain motor vehicle components, a variety of agricultural products, chemicals, steel and others.
About the AGOA.info web portal
This portal is aimed at the Sub-Saharan African community, and specifically policy-makes, industry and the business community (actual and potential exporters), journalists and the press, researchers and academics, among others. The aim of the portal is to assist the many stakeholders to fully utilise the benefits of AGOA through the provision of information, and building of capacity.
It provides the largest online collection of AGOA-related information, including details about AGOA and GSP product eligibility, comprehensive bi-lateral trade statistics for all (currently) 39 AGOA beneficiary SSA countries, trade resources, AGOA-related documents for download, and much more. The content of this portal is constantly evolving, and the trade statistics are updated on a monthly basis, as new data becomes available from various sources.
AGOA.info provides and updates the following data, information and analysis:
 Information on AGOA, Recent Amendments (AGOA I through AGOA IV), Country and Product Eligibility;
The AGOA Rules of Origin, including the Special Rules for Apparel;
Comprehensive Trade Statistics of total and AGOA-related Trade covering all 40 AGOA-eligible countries individually and in aggregate;
Archive of Acronyms and Terminology used in International Trade;
Information on the HS Nomenclature used in International Trade;
Outline of the Trade Process, and US Import Requirements;
AGOA-related Documents for Download, including the full text of the Act and Amendments;
Archive of AGOA Research Reports and Maps;
An Archive of AGOA-related News Articles that have appeared in various African Publications...
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Latest Updates
 
South Sudan declared AGOA-eligible on 26 March 2012. Earlier, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger and Gambia declared AGOA eligible on 25 October 2011. See news item, presidential declaration and trade overview at this link (S Sudan) and here (others).
AGOA Forum 2012: This year's AGOA Forum is scheduled to take place in June 2012. Further details to follow.
US GSP extended and GSP benefits to be applied retrospectively for the year 2011 since expiry of previous GSP. See AGOA.info legal documents section at the following link.
Proposed legislation to extend third country textile provision to 2015; and South Sudan to become AGOA-eligible. Download the proposed legislation (currently before House Ways and Means Committee in AGOA.info's download section at this link.
April 2012: Monthly data has been updated to include January 2012 data, quarterly includes full year 2011.
AGOA at 10: Reflections on US-Africa trade with a focus on SACU: Tralac Working Paper that can be downloaded at this
link.
December 2010: The Democratic Republic of Congo loses its AGOA eligibility status. See proclamation here (pdf download available at this link
ITC investigation of textiles and apparel: Further details at this link
AGOA IV – Changes to AGOA explained
For disaggregated trade data covering each AGOA country, follow the relevant link in the Country Sections (left column) or click here.
 For detailed AGOA maps click here
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