Vital deadline could scupper Agoa

Continent not sufficiently prepared THE AFRICAN Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) will be rendered useless unless the US government agrees to extend its deadline of September 2004 for all products exported to the US from Africa to be made entirely from African fabrics. This was the message from the Second US-Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Co-operation Forum held in Mauritius last week. Senior US trade official Robert Zoellick told the conference that the US had sent a simple message that trade was the surest path to peace and prosperity on the world’s poorest continent. But as the conference ended he said he was departing with a major question that remained unanswered, can the economic growth spurred by Agoa be sustained? He said that almost all African and US officials in attendance felt that the continent was not sufficiently prepared to meet the September 2004 deadline. African delegates appealed for the deadline to be extended and Zoellick said he would support such a move.