This week, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), an effort to improve economies in sub-Saharan Africa, celebrates its 10th anniversary. ONE global policy intern Nathan Cole gives us a recap of AGOA’s annual forum.
Last week, experts on U.S.-African trade met at the annual African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum to discuss its progress since it was signed into law in 2000.
AGOA gives beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries preferential access to U.S. markets by allowing many products from these countries to be imported duty free. International trade is essential for development in Africa, and AGOA offers tangible incentives for African countries to continue their efforts to grow economically by exporting more to the U.S.
In the past ten years, AGOA has made progress in fostering U.S. trade with Africa. Currently, 38 countries are eligible to participate in AGOA. As Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) noted in the AGOA Civil Society Forum two weeks ago, “AGOA’s been a great success … it’s time to celebrate.” The Act has promoted new trade and investment, and it has created some 300,000 jobs in Africa. AGOA is also helping to create new markets in the U.S.
However, as Sen. Cardin also noted, several challenges still remain. For example, most of the increase in trade has been with oil and gas products, and AGOA has had a very limited impact on agricultural products. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at the AGOA Forum last week, “Despite the best of intentions, AGOA has achieved only modest results and has not lived up to the highest hopes of a decade ago.”
There are many obstacles, but AGOA offers many opportunities as well. If necessary reforms such as broadening product coverage and simplifying eligibility rules are implemented, AGOA could help millions of Africans lift themselves out of poverty. AGOA can continue to foster reforms in African economies, provide technical support, and build platforms for dialogue. Hopefully, the AGOA Forum will continue to provide new insights and opportunities for advancing trade relations with Africa.
For more information on AGOA, please see ONE’s issue brief.
On Friday I joined MD ONE Members’ Deidree Bennett, Molly Corbett, and Sister Diane Bardol at a meeting with Senator Ben Cardin’s State Director Bailey Fine in Baltimore, MD. Our Members made sure to take the opportunity to express their gratitude towards the Senator for being a champion of the world’s poorest people and his recent efforts around the Energy Security Through Transparency (ESTT) Amendment.
Since Congress has not met it’s informal deadline of May 15th for passing the budget, need to fix the budget Committee’s $4 billion cut to our life-saving and development program in the appropriations process. We were also excited and appreciative that the Senator added his name to the Kerry-Lugar bipartisan letter to Chairman Dan Inouye urging the Senate Appropriations Committee to fully fund the President’s Request of $58.8 billion for international affairs in the appropriations process. Please urge your respective Senators to add their names to help strengthen our national security, save lives and promote development in the poorest parts of the world.
The MD ONE Members even recorded some video thanking Senator Cardin for standing tall, time and again, to fight for the world’s most vulnerable people!
On Friday, eight US senators sent a letter to President Obama asking him to fund global AIDS programs in 2011 at levels consistent with the Lantos-Hyde HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria Reauthoration Act of 2008.
This is the concluding paragraph of the letter.
“America has, with bipartisan support from Congress, made tangible gains in saving lives in many impoverished countries and demonstrated our compassion to the world. This leadership must continue. As such, we urge you to support funding for global AIDS programs, including U.S. bilateral programs and the Global Fund, consistent with the Lantos-Hyde Act.”
It is signed by U.S. senators Boxer, Isakson, Casey, Lautenberg, Cardin, Durbin, Gillibrand and Kaufman. You can read the full letter here.
Late last week, hundreds of ONE members called to urge Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee to ask questions about global poverty during Hillary Clinton’s Secretary of State confirmation hearing.
Some of those senators didn’t even get a chance, because Secretary-designate Clinton answered their questions before they could be asked. Her opening statement featured a long section on the two billion people worldwide living on less than $2 a day. She emphasized that the plight of the poor is “not marginal to our foreign policy but integral to accomplishing our goals.”
Opening remarks by Senator John Kerry (Massachusetts) also included a strong statement about the ongoing global hunger crisis. “The United States is uniquely situated to help the world feed itself and has the opportunities to recast its image by making the eradication of hunger a centerpiece of United States foreign policy,” he said.
In the subsequent question-and-answer period, ten out of fifteen of the Foreign Relations Committee Senators raised issues related to ONE issues, including these:
- Senator Bob Corker (Tennessee) asked about reforming and modernizing U.S. foreign aid, referring to the “maze of aid efforts that are underway” and the need for the State Department to examine and streamline these efforts.
- Senator Barbara Boxer (California) stated that “HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis — Africa, Asia, Latin America need our attention,” and went on to describe the persecution of women in the developing world.
Clinton responded with this assurance: “I want to pledge to you that as Secretary of State I view these issues as central to our foreign policy, not as adjunct or auxiliary or in any way lesser than all of the other issues that we have to confront.”
- Senator George Voinovich (Ohio) inquired about how “smart power” — (more…)
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
