Bush Announces African Trade Summit To Be Held in Washington

Announced at White House Rose Garden ceremony May 16

Washington -- The U.S. government is inviting finance and trade ministers from 35 sub-Saharan African countries to Washington for a two-day Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum arising from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a trade bill signed into law last year.

President Bush announced the forum, to be held in early October, at a May 16 ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House attended by some 200 officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, U.S. and African diplomats, and members of the U.S. Congress.

"We Americans want to be more than spectators of Africa's progress," Bush told the gathering. "We want to encourage a brighter future through policies that nurture and support freedom and democratic reform."

The purpose of the meeting, one of the largest gatherings ever of such a high-level ministerial group from Africa, is to discuss ways to further implement AGOA, the bipartisan legislation signed into law by President Clinton a year ago that established the first framework for trade relations between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa. The meeting is required under AGOA.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters at his early morning meeting with them that Bush wanted to highlight the scheduling of the forum in order to demonstrate his support for AGOA and its potential to promote trade and foster economic and social reforms on the African continent.

AGOA, Bush later said, opens American markets to sub-Saharan African countries "that have embarked on the difficult but beneficial path of political and economic reform."

"The forum will discuss further measures we can take to stimulate trade, to develop prosperity, and to enhance democracy," the president added.

The 35 countries invited to take part in the forum, Bush said, "are countries that are moving toward market-based economies and the rule of law; that are lowering trade barriers and strengthening their commercial law; that are combating corruption and eliminating child labor; and that are showing enhanced respect for labor standards and human rights."

Bush said he is directing the U.S. secretaries of state, treasury, and commerce and the U.S. trade representative to issue invitations to the forum to their ministerial counterparts.

Secretary Powell, he added, "may just deliver some of those invitations in person when he travels to the continent." Powell is scheduled to depart May 22 for a six-day tour through Mali, South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda.

The United States, Bush added, will also invite representatives of African regional organizations to the forum.

Representative Philip Crane (Republican-Illinois), vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and chairman of its subcommittee on trade, said the AGOA legislation, "premised on the concept of trade, not aid, has provided meaningful opportunities for partnership between African companies and U.S companies and has strengthened regional partnerships in Africa."

He said he looks forward to continuing to work with President Bush and his colleagues in Congress to find additional ways to benefit the African region, particularly in the area of textiles and apparel.

Representative Charles Rangel (Democrat-New York), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee's subcommittee on trade and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, warmly saluted Bush for announcing the forum at a well-publicized event in the Rose Garden "when, legislatively, this could have been done in a little office somewhere."

Senegal's ambassador to the United States, Mamadou M. Seck, the designated representative of the African diplomatic corps, thanked President Bush "for inviting us at the White House only three months after your election."

Seck said the president's own words on economic cooperation are "very important to us. This means that as soon as we leave the White House today, we all are going to call our presidents all over the continent to report what we have seen and what we have heard."