[Ip-health] Bridges Weekly: AGOA FORUM: US TO PURSUE FTA WITH AFRICA?

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

AGOA FORUM: US TO PURSUE FTA WITH AFRICA?

Senior US officials indicated that they were mulling free trade
agreement (FTA) negotiations with African countries, during meetings
with thirty seven African ministers in Washington for the fifth African
Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum from 6-7 June. AGOA is a
preferential trading scheme that the US offers to 37 eligible African
countries (see BRIDGES Weekly, 14 July 2004,
http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/04-07-14/story1.htm).

In her opening remarks to the forum, US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice emphasised that AGOA aimed to combat poverty. Referring to the
ongoing Doha Round talks at the WTO, she said that Washington was "at
the forefront of a worldwide effort to increase market access for
developing country products, including agricultural goods." She urged
her own government to do more to help African farmers expand their
exports by increasing their capacity to meet US agricultural standards.
In calling on African countries to continue diversifying their
economies, she pointed to the AGOA Diversification Fund which the US
launched last year.

Speaking at an AGOA private sector gathering the day before, Deputy USTR
Karan Bhatia indicated that the US was looking to enter into a free
trade agreement with Africa. He noted that while preference programs
such as AGOA had their benefits, they were in steady decline "as a
result of free trade agreements, autonomous liberalisation, a
prospective Doha Agreement, and changes such as the end of global
apparel quotas." He underscored the need to preserve and build on the
momentum created by AGOA by finding other ways to strengthen and deepen
US-Africa trade and investment relations. Bhatia further said that while
many African countries were probably not yet ready for FTAs with the US,
Washington would "work with those key African partners that are
interested in taking steps toward a more meaningful trade relationship
characterised by mutual commitments."

In a speech to the forum, the Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane
Gaudio cautioned that while Africa was ready for free trade, fair trade
was the preferred option.

All speeches from the forum can be found here:
http://www.agoa.gov/agoa_forum/agoa_forum5_speeches.html.

ICTSD reporting, "African Nations Wary of Closer Embrace with U.S."
YAHOO NEWS, 8 June 2006.