African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)

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US Treasury Secretary to Push African Liberalisation: By Abid Aslam, IPS, 10 July 1998. U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin leaves for Africa, to push financial market liberalisation as the key to boosting investment and economic recovery. Rubin’s trip is a follow-up to Clinton’s visit to Africa in March. Since then, the U.S. has approved two new Africa funds by its Overseas Private Investment Corporation to help finance American investments in infrastructure projects, but the centrepiece, AGOA, has been stalled in the U.S. Senate after being approved by the House.
NAFTA for Africa passed today: From Mike Dolan, Public Citizen, 17 July 1999. Analysis of the failure to block the bill in the House. The successes in changing some of the bill’s content. Public Citizen press release.
Oppose CBI and NAFTA for Africa: By Robert Naiman, 20 November 1999. Both Houses passed versions of H.R. 434, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, dubbed NAFTA for Africa by its critics. The Senate version has attached NAFTA expansion to Central America and the Caribbean, otherwise known as CBI - NAFTA parity. The combined package is currently before a House-Senate conference. Neither bill meets the demands of progressive critics of U.S. trade and investment policy, or the concerns of economic justice movements in the countries affected.
Don’t Punish Africa: By Thomas L Friedman, New York Times, 7 March 2000. A NYT article and two letters to the editor in reply. Friedman provides the official rationale for AGOA, criticizing labor for resisting it. The letter from Keven L. Kearns represents the national capitalist view in favor of protecting U.S. textile industries. The letter from Jay Mazur of the UNITE labor union suggests the bill would OK if it protected the interests of African labor.
Stop the NAFTA for Africa bill: From Martha Hannan, Program Director, International Development Exchange/IDEX, 9 May 2000. A scam trade package (HR 434) including a version of the Africa Re-Colonization Act, a version of CBI NAFTA expansion and a special deal for Chiquita passed widely in the House. It only passed after the democratic process was trashed by rushing a vote on all of this lumped together in a package that Congress was not able to review in advance.