Rice, in Africa, renews commitment to trade deal

By Alistair Thomson

DAKAR (Reuters) – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice used
her first trip to Africa on Wednesday to show top level
commitment to a U.S. preferential trade deal for the poorest
continent.

On a trip set to be dominated by efforts to stem bloodshed
in the Middle East and Sudan’s Darfur, Rice renewed
Washington’s backing for its African Growth and Opportunity Act
(AGOA) at a meeting with the 37 eligible countries in Dakar,
Senegal.

“Development assistance can be catalytic. But it alone will
never enable people to lift themselves out of poverty. Open
markets that allow individuals to realize the benefits of their
own hard work are essential,” Rice told the meeting.

“AGOA benefits everyone. Africa businesses create more,
better-paying jobs. And American consumers receive more goods
at lower prices — products like sorbet from South Africa,
woodcarvings from Tanzania, and tuna from right here in
Senegal,” she said.

AGOA’s critics say the program primarily provides cheap,
tariff-free fuel to U.S. consumers. Out of more than $26
billion worth of AGOA exports in 2004, all but $3.5 billion
were oil-related.

Rice noted projects announced this week to increase the
share of non-oil AGOA exports, including a $200 million,
five-year African Global Competitiveness Initiative.

She said the initiative would involve setting up a fourth
“trade hub” office in Dakar to add to those already established
in Botswana, Ghana and Kenya to promote trade with the United
States by providing information to potential trading partners
on both sides of the Atlantic.

TRADE TALKS CAST SHADOW

The Dakar meeting has focused on broadening the scope of
AGOA, which sees a tiny minority of the 6,000 eligible products
exported in any significant quantity.

It has also given U.S. trade officials a chance to talk to
their African counterparts about the commitments made by the
Group of Eight rich nations earlier in July to end agricultural
subsidies.

That announcement was met with skepticism in much of Africa
as there was no timetable for tearing down subsidies that many
say keep U.S. farmers in business while skewing world markets
and driving down or even wiping out earnings of poor Africans.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns made clear that any
broad abolition of subsidies to U.S. farmers would have to wait
until the conclusion of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks.

A WTO meeting in Hong Kong in December is meant to produce
a more precise consensus on achieving free global trade under
the Doha round of negotiations, due to end by late 2006.

“Everyone recognizes that we can’t afford to fail,” U.S.
Assistant Trade Representative for Africa Florizelle Liser told
Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

“This is not our last chance, but it is our one big
chance.”