House Ways and Means Committee Amends and Approves AGOA III Bill
On May 5, 2004, the House Ways and Means Committee amended and ordered reported (i.e., approved) H.R. 4103, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Acceleration Act of 2004. (This bill is often referred to as "AGOA III.")
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(The Senate's AGOA bill, the U.S.-Africa Partnership Act, (S. 1900) was introduced and referred to the Senate Finance Committee in November 2003. See ITT's Online Archives or 05/06/04 news, 04050699 1, for BP summary.)
This is Part IV, the final part of a multi-part series of summaries of H.R. 4103 as amended and ordered reported by the House Ways and Means Committee and covers the provisions in H.R. 4103 not related to the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programs and textiles and apparel.
According to a House Ways and Means Committee press release and the bill text, H.R. 4103, as amended and ordered reported ("H.R. 4103"), would:
Transportation relationships. H.R. 4103 would direct the President to foster improved port-to-port and airport-to-airport relationships (and trade through air services) by increasing coordination between customs services, chambers of commerce, freight forwarders, and customs brokers in the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa.
Trade advisory committee on Africa. H.R. 4103 would direct the President to convene the trade advisory committee on Africa established by Executive Order 11846 in order to facilitate the goals and objectives of AGOA and the AGOA Acceleration Act, and to maintain ongoing discussions with African trade and agriculture ministries and private sector organizations on issues of mutual concern, including regional and international trade concerns and World Trade Organization (WTO) issues.
Development study, ecotourism/trade capacity support, and agricultural technical assistance. H.R. 4103 would also:
require the President to conduct a development study on each eligible sub-Saharan African country within one year of the date of enactment of H.R. 4103;
encourage the President to support increased ecotourism and trade capacity and development in transportation, energy, agriculture, and telecommunications infrastructure; and
require the President to provide technical assistance to no fewer than 10 eligible sub-Saharan African countries identified as having the greatest potential to increase marketable exports of agricultural products to the U.S. and the greatest need for technical assistance.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 05/10/04, 05/11/04, and 05/12/04 news, 04051005, 04051105, and 04051220, for Parts I-III of this series of BP summaries of H.R. 4103 as approved by House Ways and Means.)
House Ways and Means press release (FC 17-A, dated 05/08/04) are available at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/legis.asp?formmode=read&id=1438.H.R. 4103 as amended and ordered reported are available at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/Media/pdf/hr4103/hr4103sub.pdf.
House Ways and Means Committee description of the amendments made to H.R. 4103 during committee mark-up are available at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/Media/pdf/hr4103/hr4103subdesc.pdf.