By Jim Fisher-Thompson
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Kenya has made an excellent start among the more than 30 nations deemed eligible for trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and is "starting to see a revitalization" of its textile exports to the United States, says lawyer and trade specialist Tony Carroll.

In a February 26 phone interview, Carroll told the Washington File that Kenya "could serve as a model to other sub-Saharan African nations" wishing to take advantage of the act's favorable provisions for trade with the United States.

A former Peace Corps official who is now vice president of the consulting firm Manchester Trade, Carroll spoke to audiences in Kenya and Mauritius about AGOA last October on a tour sponsored by the State Department's Speakers Program.

According to Carroll, the aim of AGOA is to create a new U.S. relationship with sub-Saharan Africa based on trade rather than aid. The law provides duty- free entry of African textiles and apparel into the U.S. market by sub-Saharan African nations who are making open-market reforms.

Carroll said that Kenyan businessmen and government officials "get really high points for getting their textile industry ready for AGOA." He added that "they organized workshops with industry and were able to solicit guidance on how to approach the visa applications."

Exports covered under AGOA must have accompanying visas, or entry documents, describing the goods and their point of origin. The U.S. Customs Service, which is charged with regulating the visa regime, also gets high marks for its work in relation to AGOA, he said. It has conducted a number of training sessions with African counterparts to help them make sure their goods are not transshipped from other nations, which is forbidden under the new law.

Kenyans have a real stake in carefully observing AGOA's rules, Carroll said, since at one time they were "shut out of the U.S. market almost entirely because of the over-export of T-shirts and questions of transshipment." In 1994-95, "it was difficult for them to attract textile investors, so when AGOA lifted the quotas they saw it almost as a redemption to get back into the U.S. market and also build up their industry," he added.

Part of that redemption, he explained, involved "an excellent synergy that developed between the Kenyan government and the private sector in advance of AGOA, aimed at getting their textile industry back on its feet. Margaret Chmenengich, permanent secretary in the Ministry for Tourism, Trade and Industry, facilitated the process by putting a visa workshop together, and did a good job."

As a site for investment, Carroll said, Kenya has "good port access, good roads, an experienced labor force in garment making. They've had problems with power supply, but generally they have the physical and human infrastructure in place that should support a good textile export sector."

The challenge now, he said, is "attracting other investors and sticking to the economic reforms mandated by the act, and for that the [Kenyan] government will have an increasingly larger role to play."

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

---

IIP Home  |  Africa Homepage  |  African Trade Issues