USTR Launches Annual Review of AGOA Country Eligibility
September 23, 2009
World Trade\Interactive
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has announced that the Trade Policy Staff Committee’s African Growth and Opportunity Act Implementation Subcommittee is seeking written public comments by Oct. 19 for its annual review of the eligibility of sub-Saharan African countries to receive the benefits provided under AGOA. Comments received will be considered by the TPSC in developing country eligibility recommendations to the president and, if related to child labor criteria, by the Department of Labor in the preparation of its report on child labor.
Under AGOA, the president may designate a sub-Saharan African country as eligible for duty-free treatment for certain additional products under the Generalized System of Preferences as well as for the preferential treatment AGOA provides for certain textile and apparel articles if that country meets the statutory eligibility criteria. The president is required to monitor and annually review the progress of each AGOA beneficiary country in meeting the eligibility criteria in order to determine whether it should continue to be eligible, as well as whether each SSA country that is currently not an AGOA beneficiary should be designated as such. If the president determines that an AGOA beneficiary country is not making continual progress in meeting the eligibility requirements, the designation of that country as an AGOA beneficiary must be terminated.
The 40 countries eligible for AGOA in 2009 are Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Comoros, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.
The following SSA countries are not currently designated as AGOA beneficiaries: Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe.
|
|
