Diarise these dates to ensure preferential trade pact with US

IN THE processing of the bill leading to the May 18 signing of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) - a certain timetable was attached which should be entered in the diaries of every aspirant exporter to the US.
The later dates in the two timetables are the ones which - if not adhered to - could mean that a country or an industry will fail to qualify for AGOA general system of preferences (duty free entry to US) treatment.
The bill separated the qualification procedures into two sections - one dealing with country qualification; the second applying to individual companies or industry groups.
National Eligibility:
The US government invited 48 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries to apply for eligibility in terms of the criteria set out in the AGOA.
The criteria or eligibility was spelt out in Section 104 of the Act - and reiterated in the Federal Register Notice No 118 of Volume 65, dated June 19, 2000.
Countries wishing to be eligible had to submit, in writing, their desire to do so by no later than July 14.
This was also the deadline for public comments on country eligibility - a process where the public was invited to comment on whether the countries seeking to obtain eligibility met the criteria set out in the Act.
Company/Product Eligibility
The second timetable laid out the deadlines for submission from producers/ suppliers for eligibility for their products for which GSP coverage would need to be extended.
Notice No 102 appeared
in the Federal Register, Volume 65 of June 19 and set out the following procedure for commenting on the new GSP list that was published in the notice.

The timetable reads:

Initial public comments and submissions due by July 5, 2000;
Requests to appear at the public hearings are due by August 9;
The public hearings are due to be held on September 7-8;
Post hearing briefs and rebuttal briefs are due on September 27;
October 6 is the target date for the US International Trade Commission (USITC) to publish its advice to the President;
October 20 is the deadline for the submission of public comments on the USITC advice;
December 2000 is the target date for the Presidential announcement of product decisions;
January 2001 is the target date for implementation.

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