Kampala — THE Government and business community have not taken full advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), Jerry Lanier, the US ambassador to Uganda, has said.

"Uganda has not benefited from AGOA as much as other African countries have.

"But we are optimistic that Uganda will do more and take advantage of the opportunities presented under the AGOA arrangement in future."

Lanier was speaking during a press roundtable at the US embassy in Kampala recently.

The AGOA initiative is a US bilateral trade preferential law in which selected products from 40 African countries enter the American market duty and quota free.

The programme gives Uganda and other African countries a big push towards industrial development.

A trade summary between Uganda and the US from 2001, a year after AGOA came into effect, to 2007, shows a consistent trade imbalance in favour of the US.

In 2007, Uganda imported about $80m goods from the US, while its exports to the country stood at $27m.

The majority of Uganda's exports to the US consist of agricultural products, while imports from the US into the country are made up of a wider range of products, mainly electronics, agricultural products and chemicals.