THE 2023 African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, over the weekend. It featured a ministerial and private sector programme, as well as a private sector expo, that included B2B sourcing and matchmaking.

First launched in 2000, AGOA grants exports from qualifying African countries duty-free access to the United States - the world's largest consumer market.

It is due to expire in September 2025, and discussions are currently under way over what would be its third reauthorisation.

African countries are pushing for an early 10-year extension without changes to reassure businesses and investors.

Over 10 billion US dollar worth of African exports entered the United States duty free last year under the programme. More than 80 per cent of duty-free non-petroleum AGOA exports, for example, have come from just five countries - South Africa, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar and Ethiopia - in recent years.

This is another opportunity for Tanzania to strategise how to maximise benefits of the opportunity to its exports. So far Tanzania had expressed commitment to take up a number of measures to boost export to the US under the scheme.

As envisioned in the National Agoa Strategy 2016, the measures according to the Industry and Trade Ministry, include cutting operational costs to spur production, building a Tanzania-US traders network and improving business environment.

Tanzania became AGOA eligible on October 2, 2000, and while exports have been rising steadily, the potential volume has not been realised.

A major challenge facing exporters under AGOA, is the lack of information on export steps and documentary requirements to selling to the US under AGOA.

Tanzania's AGOA/GSP exports have shown steady growth since 2011. Exports increased 67 per cent between 2018 and 2015 from 28.5 million US dollars to 42.9 million US dollars.

About 98 per cent of AGOA exports from Tanzania in 2018 were articles of apparel. There is scope to diversify Tanzania's AGOA export basket.