Africa: AGOA Forum Rescheduled to October 29

3 October 2001
allAfrica.com
By Charles Cobb Jr.

Washington, DC — A top-level encounter between African government ministers and the US Government, postponed from October 4-5 because of the attacks on New York and Washington, DC, will now be held October 29. The AGOA Forum, as it is being dubbed, will bring together African nations benefiting from last year's African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) with trade officials and senior members of the Bush Administration.

The first US Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum - to give the meeting its full title - will now last only one day and permit the participation only of ministers of African foreign affairs, finance and trade. Previously-planned workshops with NGOs and US businesses will not be held. "We wanted to do something before the WTO" (World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference set for 9-13 November in Doha, Qatar), said an official at the United States Trade Representative Office.

Sources close to the meeting's organisers say there are likely to be workshops that include the US private sector in the Spring, and many would like to see a second ministerial meeting held at the same time.

Last week, speaking at a gathering jointly sponsored by the Freedom Forum and the African Correspondents Association, Assistant Secretary of State Walter Kansteiner was heard to suggest that the first Forum might be deferred until the Spring in order to ensure the participation of President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell. It is still not clear whether either of them will be present on October 29.

In a Rose Garden ceremony announcing the Forum last May, President Bush seemed to suggest he would participate as he commented: "We Americans want to be more than spectators of Africa's progress." Secretary Powell, in a spontaneous remark, said: "If you invite me, I will come too."

The decision to hold the meeting at a time when there is great reluctance to travel, is related to the new date for the postponed Corporate Council on Africa's Africa-America Summit, now scheduled for October 30. Many of the participants in the AGOA Forum are expected to go on to Philadelphia for that meeting.

With the exception of the United Nations, the CCA meeting will be the largest gathering of African government and business leaders ever to convene in the United States.

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