#AGOA:US Trade Representative, Michael Froman Wants African Governments To Lower Custom Restrictions

US Trade Representative at the on-going 2013 African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,  US Trade Representative  Michael Froman wants African governments to lower the cost of exporting goods to facilitate a better trade window between it and the United States.

Froman who the US delegation to a meeting with trade ministers and investors from 39 African countries during the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) forum which ended Tuesday said “It’s very expensive to get Africa’s goods to global markets.”

“Africa also needs to strengthen its regional integration and possibly build a continent-wide free trade area,” he said.

US officials present at the forum also want African governments invest in infrastructure.

Froman’s assertion came few weeks after the US indicated that it might ask African states to reciprocate the duty and quota-free Agoa by opening up their markets the same way they do to Asia and Europe.

At the moment, Agoa allows African countries to export more than 4,000 product lines to the US without quota or duty restriction.

“Obviously, there’s going to be a lot of scepticism in the US if African countries ask for extension of Agoa beyond 2015 unless they also offer to give same preferential treatment to American goods,” Froman said.

The 2013 AGOA Forum focused on best practices for trading under AGOA, access to finance for women, business development, regional initiatives empowering women entrepreneurs and use of social media to build a successful business.

AGOA enables the 39 eligible sub-Saharan African countries to export most products duty-free to the United States. The total African exports under AGOA have more than quadrupled since the program's inception in 2000.

In 2012, AGOA-eligible countries exported nearly $35 billion in products to the United States duty free under AGOA.