29 February 2008
USAID yesterday announced that Ethiopian exports have soared the past two years under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which offers incentives for African countries to continue their efforts to open their economies and build free markets.
VEGA Ethiopia AGOA+, the agency's bilateral AGOA trade program in Africa, said the country has been making steady gains in its efforts to break into the U.S market.
"Ethiopian exports under AGOA/General System of Preference (GSP) have increase by almost 100% to US $8.9 million in 2007, much higher than the average national exports growth rate over the past five years", the US agency said in a statement.
The AGOA+ project has been working directly with local businesses to increase Ethiopia's exports to the United States through the AGOA and has seen significant progress so far.
AGOA is a U.S government initiative that allows for a duty free and quota free access to the US market for over 6,000 items produced in selected African countries including Ethiopia. The AGOA+ project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) "The US market, while every competitive and demanding, is also the largest in the world", Addis Alemayehu, Director of the AGOA + project was quoted in the statement as having explained.
"We are on the verge of a major breakthrough where companies in the U.S. and elsewhere are starting to recognize Ethiopia as a place to do business and our exporters are starting to open their eyes to the world of opportunities that exist in the export sector." As the AGOA + project starts to address the twin problems of a supply side weakness in Ethiopia and the inability to market Ethiopian products in the U.S., total exports to the US have showed considerable gain. Total exports have risen from US$61 million in 2005 to US$88 million in 2007, an increase of over 30% over two years, according to the agency.
USAID VEGA Ethiopia AGOA + was initiated in January 2006 and has made tremendous progress in contributing to the growth of exports from Ethiopia to the U.S. market. The project works in close partnership with the Government of Ethiopia, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Ethiopian Embassy in the Washington DC.
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