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AGOA Action Committee Plans 2008
Representatives from a broad spectrum of African governments, NGOs, domestic and international trade associations and private sector companies gathered Wednesday under the umbrella of the AGOA Action Committee, to plan a revitalised push for new African trade legislation in 2008.
Participants included Ambassadors from AGOA beneficiary countries, the African Union, and advocacy groups including Constituency for Africa, Oxfam, World Vision, GoodWorks International and Reach the Children.
The Committee, co-chaired by former Congressman Jack Kemp and Rosa Whitaker, President of The Whitaker Group, has worked over the years to advance AGOA in the US Congress, the private sector and investment community.
Whitaker convened the meeting to review the congressional agenda for Africa in 2008 and discuss opportunities to strengthen AGOA and advance enhanced legislation. The group discussed in-depth a range of ideas for a new Africa trade bill that would improve the existing African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
“We have had considerable success under AGOA, with non-oil AGOA imports reaching $3.2 billion (E22.4 billion) last year. But we cannot take this progress for granted. AGOA needs continued advocacy to remain effective for Africa,” said Ms. Whitaker.
“There is continued support and momentum in Congress for a bill focused on Africa, and this Committee needs to mobilise its various constituencies to contribute innovative ideas on how to improve AGOA and go beyond it, to address other barriers to development in Africa.”
Addressing the Committee were Ambassador Molelekeng E. Rapolaki, of Lesotho, AGOA's largest apparel exporter. Also speaking were Martin Trust, owner and CEO of Samtex (USA) Inc., one of AGOAís strongest private sector advocates, and Sarah Rogge, Senior Trade Policy Advisor for DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade Africa).
The mission of the AGOA Action Committee is to coordinate a coalition of corporate leaders, NGOs, academics and other friends of Africa to address the challenges facing Africa by identifying obstacles to development, providing innovative solutions, and advocating to keep AGOA strong and relevant to Africaís long-term economic development.
 Latest AGOA Trade Data currently available on AGOA.info
Click here to view a sector profile of Swaziland’s bilateral trade with the United States, disaggregated by total exports and imports, AGOA exports and GSP exports.
Other regularly updated trade statistics on AGOA.info include: (click each link to view)
AGOA-Beneficiary Countries’ AGOA and GSP Trade Aggregates
AGOA Trade by Industry Sector
Apparel Trade under AGOA’s Wearing Apparel Provisions
Latest Apparel Quotas under AGOA
Bilateral Trade Data for all AGOA-eligible countries individually.
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Latest Updates
 
21 AGOA FORUM 2013: Ethiopia will host the 2013 US-Africa AGOA Forum. AGOA.info has been informed that the Forum will not take place as envisaged on 28 June - 1 July, but at a later date yet to be determined. The theme for this year’s Forum is “Trade and Technology for sustained change”“
21 December 2012: Guinea-Bissau and Mali lose AGOA eligibility
APRIL 2013: Monthly data has been updated to include February 2013 data, quarterly includes full year 2012 data.
New US strategy towards Africa: White House Factsheet on new strategy towards Africa, plus overview of past US engagement with Africa. Click here for the file and this link for a summary article.
02 August 2012: Bill to extend third country fabric provision passes Congress Download the House of Reps. Bill at this link
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).
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.
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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