The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is accepting through May 15 comments to inform its development of recommendations on changes to the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
AGOA is currently authorized through Dec. 31 and will require congressional action to remain in effect after that date. As part of that process USTR will provide to Congress recommendations on reforms and modernizations needed to ensure AGOA meets the needs of U.S. workers and businesses, advances U.S. national security and economic security goals, optimizes balanced bilateral trade flows with beneficiary countries, and provides a path for reciprocal trade agreements with more advanced countries as they develop and graduate from the program.
USTR explains that since the enactment of AGOA in 2000 the program’s impact on U.S.-Africa trade trends and economic relations has been ineffective and uneven. For example, Sub-Saharan Africa’s share of total U.S. goods imports has remained low and followed a downward trend for a decade starting in 2011. Further, the majority of U.S. goods imports under AGOA have come from a few countries, such as South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, and a narrow set of traditional sectors including energy, textiles and apparel, and transportation. Total goods and services imports into sub-Saharan Africa have surged five-fold since 2000 but the U.S. share of this market has shrunk significantly, with some AGOA beneficiaries maintaining or even imposing new barriers to U.S. exports.
USTR is therefore inviting comments on a number of related issues, including the following.
- how AGOA can better address non-tariff barriers and other impediments to U.S. exports
- how AGOA can assist in increasing demand for U.S. products and creating U.S. jobs
- what other U.S. government programs or agencies can be used to amplify the impacts of AGOA
- the extent to which current AGOA eligibility criteria are too numerous or too broad and which should be revised accordingly
- whether new eligibility criteria should be added
- whether impediments exist to effective enforcement of eligibility criteria and methods to strengthen enforcement and promote compliance
- whether certain statutory provisions should be added, removed, or modified to increase the likelihood that beneficiary countries graduate after a reasonable period of time
- whether factors other than income thresholds should be considered for graduation from AGOA
- how AGOA should be modified to improve the resilience of the U.S. supply chain for critical minerals
- how AGOA may be structured to protect U.S. workers, combat unfair trading practices, improve U.S. market access and increase U.S. exports, increase U.S. manufacturing and technological competitiveness, and strengthen U.S. national and economic security
- how AGOA can be modified to ensure preferences accrue predominantly to the U.S. and beneficiary countries rather than third countries
- whether and how the U.S. could upgrade its relationship with beneficiary countries, including through bilateral trade agreements
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