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ARCHIVES OF LEAD STORIES
May 6, 2004 Africans lobby to continue
trade pact Jeremy Schwab A coalition of former African heads of state is urging Congress to renew a critical treaty governing trade between Africa and the United States, before Congress goes on recess this summer. During a press conference at Boston University last week, the former heads of state urged the United States to renew the African Growth and Opportunities Act, which expires in September. “I think we have been able to forward our message,” said Karl Offmann, former president of the Republic of Mauritius. “The message is look at Africa. You can invest. It is stable.” The act reduces U.S. tariffs on goods made in African nations which demonstrate a commitment to democracy and to spending on education and health for their people. Participating African nations want to see it extended through 2015. The act has encouraged U.S. and other companies to set up manufacturing plants in Africa in order to take advantage of the lower tariffs. “Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created in African countries as well as the U.S.,” said Usha Jeetah, ambassador of Mauritius to the United States. “It has been a win-win for both sides.” Former heads of state from Cape Verde, Ghana, Mauritius, Tanzania, Benin and Botswana held the press conference following meetings in London with U.S. and European Union officials to discuss investment in Africa and cooperation in the war on terrorism. “In the U.S. and the U.K. there has been a growing realization that we need to engage Africa more substantively,” said Charles Stith, director of BU’s African President Resource Center, which hosted the press conference. “Our economic interests are greater as the Middle East has become muddled.” Stith said the United States will increase its reliance on African oil over the next few years. U.S. officials say that initiatives such as President George W. Bush’s commitment to fight AIDS in Africa fit with the United States’ desire to help stabilize Africa so that terrorists cannot as easily operate there. “U.S. interests were attacked in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kenya,” said Stith. “Our security interest there is the same reason to engage in Africa.” But in September, the AGOA treaty would end, severing a vital link between Africa and the U.S. economy. “Africa represents the last emerging market and it’s important that American business people look at Africa as a potential for fresh investment,” said Joseph Huggins, ambassador to the United States from Botswana, before last week press conference. Already, some companies are pulling out in anticipation of Congress not renewing the pact, according to Jeetah. Those lobbying for a renewal also want Congress to extend a provision that allows African nations to sell clothing to the United States at reduced tariffs using fabric from any country. Without the provision, African nations could only use fabric from other African nations or from the United States, and could not get the best price for raw materials. “Already, investors have started pulling out of Africa, because the third country fabric rule is being extended just two years fully, with a third year of phasing it out,” said Jeetah. A group of African presidents has formed the New Partnership for African Development to seek outside investment. While some African nations have used such investment to enrich a small elite or conduct military operations, others, such as Botswana, have followed a more democratic path — the model the United States says it is encouraging with the African Growth and Opportunities Act. “Botswana in 1966, the year of independence,
was one of the poorest countries,” said Huggins. “It
had less than 8,000 meters of roads. In 1967, they find diamonds.
Look at other countries, where oil or mineral wealth has been
mismanaged. In Botswana, education is free from kindergarten to
PhD. We have a literacy rate of 90 percent and the highest sovereign
credit rating in Africa because we don’t borrow.”
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