House Expands Trade Opportunities for African Countries

On June 14, the House approved, by voice vote, a bill (H.R. 4103) to modify and extend through September 30, 2015, provisions of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)(P.L. 106-200). Set to expire in 2008, the law provides duty-free treatment for African goods and provides technical assistance for African countries to help develop their economic infrastructure. The House Ways and Means Committee approved the measure on May 5 (see The Source, 5/07/04).

Sponsored by Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA), H.R. 4103 contains a number of findings, including:

• AGOA has helped to spur economic growth and bolster economic reforms in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa;
• Expanded trade because of AGOA has improved fundamental economic conditions within sub-Saharan Africa, including the creation of jobs in the poorest region of the world;
• One of the greatest challenges facing African countries continues to be the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has infected as many as one out of every four people in some countries, creating tremendous social, political, and economic costs; and
• African countries need continued financial and technical assistance from the United States to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

H.R. 4103 includes a statement of policy, which declares that Congress supports international efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, other infectious diseases, and serious public health problems, and supports many of the aims of the New Partnership for African Development, including:

• Reducing poverty and increasing economic growth;
• Promoting peace, democracy, security, and human rights;
• Expanding access to social services, education, and health services; and
• Promoting the role of women in social and economic development by reinforcing education and training and by assuring their participation in political and economic arenas.

Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) said that Africa “is at a crossroads. The vision many of us have is of an Africa that joins the world economy, the vision that we have had of working for an increasingly stable and democratic Africa that is combating HIV/AIDS and exporting and importing more goods and services, including from America. That is the vision that we share, I think, on this floor. The other very different path Africa could get stuck on leads to even greater poverty and greater hunger and conflict and, frankly, greater disease and environmental degradation. It is unclear which way Africa is headed. Challenges on the continent are immense. But what is quite clear is that our growing security and economic interests on the continent would suffer greatly should Africa find itself on the downward path.”

Expressing his opposition to requirements in the bill that “benefit U.S. multinational corporations and foreign investors,” Rep. Jesse Jackson (D-IL) stated, “If we are to attach any conditions to the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act Program, our interests, from my perspective, would far better be served by an insistence on better treatment for factory workers and stronger legal protections for union activities in these countries. If we genuinely expect trade to help lift people out of poverty, we cannot continue to burden these countries with rules and requirements that undermine development and leave workers powerless to fight the exploitation and abuse that is an integral part of the corporate race to the bottom.”