There is need to review the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act to make it sustainable and viable to benefit Least Developed Councils craving to break into the United States Market.
African Cotton and Textile Industries Federation, an African cotton regulatory body, embracing more than 20 members across Africa stated that for AGOA, the brainchild of the United States to foster market growth for Least Developed Countries, Zambia inclusive to remain viable, there is need to review the Act for all the players to benefit.
According to a paper presented at a recent AGOA preparatory meeting ahead of the summit primed for Lusaka from June 8th to 10th 2011, the African Cotton and Textile Industries Federation noted that the Act should be reformed for mutual benefits of all players, especially least developed countries that seek market expansion into US and other European markets that were protected by trade barriers.
According to data, the members to ACTIF represents the entire cotton textile apparel value chain from across Africa comprising cotton farmers, ginners, spinners, fabric manufacturers and garment producers.
It is the view of the ACTIF that its members have the most to gain from the continued success of AGOA, and the most to lose if it was allowed to collapse. AGOA has been hugely successful during its first five years it had a transformative effect on Africa but more needs to be done to achieve its objectives.
According to data, the textile and apparel sectors, there has been an estimated 300,000 new direct jobs and maybe more than twice that number of indirect jobs in support sectors were created as a new industry was developed across Africa. The countries include Botswana Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Under AGOA, the US apparel imports from Africa more than doubled between 2000 and 2004. The lives of an estimated 5 million to 10 million Africans were improved by AGOA as it helped build the regional value chain as well. All of these accomplishments were at essentially zero cost to the US government, as the private sector responded to the incentives created by AGOA to invest and create new direct and indirect jobs.
The Federation claimed that AGOA’s success began to fade with the expiration of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement system of quotas on January 1st 2005, pursuant to the Uruguay Round agreement on Textiles and Clothing. Literally scores of mostly Chinese owned apparel factories closed across Africa and were reopened in China, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam.
There was a wholesale transfer of more than 100,000 apparel jobs from Africa to Asia. By 2009, US apparel imports from Africa had fallen by nearly half while at the same time apparel imports from Asia had skyrocketed.
The ACTIF argued that while China by itself accounted for the lion’s share of the job losses in the African textile and apparel sector, three other Asian apparel producers also enjoyed tremendous growth at the expense of Africa.
The AGOA summit, the first to be hosted in Zambia and first to be hosted on the continent has attracted more than 600 participants from various parts of the world apart from Zimbabwe, a neighbor to Zambia because it has failed to fulfill a number of conditions set by the organizers of the trade body.
Recent reports in Zimbabwe indicated that the once African bread basket would not be available for the June 8th to 10th 2011 summit in Lusaka, the Zambian capital because it is ineligible for benefits under the rules of AGOA since it has not allegedly made any progress in promoting the rule of law and political reforms in the country under the Robert Mugabe reign.
(Filed by Mr Kapembwa Sinkamba SteelGuru Correspondent Zambia)
