AGOA Transparency Legislation Moving Through Both Chambers of Congress
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Oct. 5 cleared legislation to require greater publicizing of and technical assistance for foreign use of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), after the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Sept. 28 passed companion legislation. The bills, introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., would require the executive branch to maintain a public website to disseminate AGOA information, including information and technical assistance already provided at U.S. Agency for International Development regional trade hubs. The bills also say the president should provide capacity building training to promote diversification of African products and value-added processing, as well as capacity building and technical assistance funding to help African companies and institutions comply with U.S. counterterrorism policies and initiatives.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
Further, the legislation says the president should provide capacity building for African entrepreneurs and trade associations on “production strategies, quality standards, formation of cooperatives, market research, and market development.” Additionally, the bills state that the State Department should direct U.S. embassies in AGOA-eligible countries to promote the use of the preferences program by those nations.
Speaking Oct. 11 at the nonprofit Initiative for Global Development’s Fall Frontier 100 Forum, House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee majority staff director Gregory Simpkins lamented that AGOA and Generalized System of Preferences benefits aren’t being used nearly as widely by African beneficiaries as they could be. “There are more than 4,600 goods under AGOA, and the [GSP] that Africa can take advantage of, but [based on] hearing after hearing, [congressional delegations to African countries], delegations we’ve met; clearly that’s not happening,” Simpkins said. “This is where African suggestions need to come in.” Subtracting the oil sector, companies in only about four countries utilize AGOA to “any substantial degree,” Foreign Relations minority professional staff director Algene Sajery said during the forum.
Members of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees have floated the idea of potentially moving AGOA-related legislation alongside a GSP renewal bill before the end of the year (see 1709120021). The Cardin and Royce bills are two of five pieces of legislation introduced this Congress that involve AGOA. The Finance and Ways and Means committees didn’t comment.