Kenya, Ethiopia Ahead of Region in Benefits of AGOA Treaty: Report

Addis Ababa, May 26/2020( ENA) Kenya and Ethiopia have led the way in their use of the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) treaty, scoring 98 per cent and 81.9 per cent respectively.

According to data contained in the US Trade and Investment with sub-Saharan Africa: Recent Trends and New Developments report, Kenya and Ethiopia are the leading Eastern Africa countries that have taken advantage of the treaty to increase exports to the US, mainly of products like textile and apparels, metals, agricultural products, and artifacts.

Increase in apparel exports by Madagascar, Ethiopia and Kenya resulted in US imports of apparel from the region under AGOA, increasing by 9.9 per cent annually to 1.2 billion USD from 2016 to 2018.

“The 10-year extension of the AGOA program and AGOA’s third-country fabric provision allowed countries to expand apparel production and were the primary causes of the increase in apparel imports,” the report stated.

Notably, only 16 of the 39 AGOA beneficiary countries have prepared national utilization strategies that identify sectors with the potential to increase exports to the US under the treaty that will expire in 2025, the East African newspaper stated.

According to the US Trade and Investment report, USA exports to sub-Saharan Africa countries rose from 13.5 billion USD in 2016 to 15.9 billion USD in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of 8.5 per cent.

In 2018, the US was the third largest global supplier of poultry to sub-Saharan Africa by value after the European Union and Brazil, with the region accounting for 11 per cent of US exports to the world.

Kenya led the East African Community members in its use of the AGOA treaty, scoring 98 per cent. However, it came second to Ghana which recorded 99.1 per cent with Madagascar coming third at 93.7 per cent.