Textile makers want to make trade deal permanent
06/08/2009
The African Cotton and Textile Industries Federation (ACTIF), which represents these industries in 17 countries, chose the occasion of a visit to Kenya by US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, to call for an initiative giving favourable market access to produce from Africa to be made permanent.
African countries that export textiles and clothing to the US say that the limited lifespan of legislation called the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which expires in 2015, is creating uncertainty among potential buyers of African goods.
“We would like to see AGOA as a more permanent trade agreement,” said ACTIF chairman, Jaswinder Bedi. “The problem with a time-bound agreement is that it creates a lot of uncertainty and a lot of predictability issues, so the buyers don’t want to put up a fully-fledged buying office.”
One of the events that Mrs Clinton attended, along with US Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, was the annual AGOA Forum which opened in Nairobi on August 5. AGOA grants duty-free status to more than 6,000 product lines from 41 Sub-Saharan countries. These countries, collectively, accounted for just over 1% of total US exports and about 3% of total US imports in 2008.
President Barack Obama addressed the forum by video link. He reiterated his message that only Africans can raise up Africa, but that he was personally committed to a full, mutual partnership with the continent.
Share this story:
