Trade between Mozambique and the United States has risen over 60% – from US$120 million in 2007 to US$318 million in 2011, according to the US ambassador to Mozambique, Leslie Rowe. Speaking at the opening of a meeting between the Mozambican Ministry of Industry and Trade and an American delegation led by the Deputy US Trade Representative, Demetrios Marantis, Rowe added that US direct investment in Mozambique had also been growing significantly. The US was Mozambique’s main foreign investor for the first three quarters of 2011. “Since the mid-1990s, the US Mission here, through our agencies such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), has provided a wide range of technical assistance to Mozambique, both to the government and to the private sector,” she said, giving as an example the US support for Mozambique in ratifying the SADC (Southern African Development Community) Trade Protocol in 2010. The US visit was part of a review of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) between Mozambique and the US that was signed in June 2005. In addition to revising TIFA, the meeting also reviewed the effect of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).
