Zoellick Meets with Southern Africa Trade Ministers

Salutes them for actions at WTO Doha meeting

Pretoria, South Africa -- U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick -- on the second stop of a three-nation historic trip through Africa -- met with trade ministers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) February 16 to hear their concerns and pay tribute to them for their recent actions at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Doha.

Zoellick, who is on a self-described "listening tour" through Africa, told the ministers they should all be "extremely proud of the role that Africa played," at the recent WTO Doha meeting.

"We would not have been able to launch that agenda without the hard work and commitment of the African ministers. The key role that you played in our all night session and then working with one another to be able to move this forward in my view is absolutely vital," he said.

While in Geneva just about four weeks ago, Zoellick said he also met with the African ambassadors to the WTO in an effort to maintain the strong dialogue and momentum that were generated at Doha.

Zoellick then solicited the opinions of the ministers on four topics:

-- How is the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) working and what needs to be done to make it work better and improve trade and investment;

-- How the United States can work with Africa to build African capacities and structures to allow the region to participate more fully in the global trading system -- a topic he called "absolutely vital" to the continent's development;

-- African opinion on the Doha Development Agenda, which seeks to increase the trade capacity of nations across Africa and the developing world. Zoellick said he is pleased that the agenda "seems to be off to a good start and;"

-- How the trade agenda can support SADC's efforts to achieve development and the alleviation of poverty.

During opening remarks at the session Zoellick also took time to draw a clear connection between trade and aid, saying "in order to make the trade agenda work for Africa, we have to integrate it with our aid agenda and particularly on the capacity-building side."

In that regard, Zoellick announced an additional $8.7 million from the United States to support three new trade capacity-building initiatives for SADC. The three initiatives will:

-- Provide $3 million for enhanced participation in AGOA for SADC member states;

-- Provide $2.7 million to the SADC Customs and Trade Facilitation Initiative to help SADC nations modernize and reform their customs operations;

-- Provide $3 million to help SADC expand its global and regional agricultural trade by helping African farmers meet U.S. and European Union standards for food safety -- which in turn will aid them in selling and marketing their crops overseas.

Finally, Zoellick said the United States is funding one additional scholarship for one trade official from each of the SADC countries that are members of the WTO to participate in the comprehensive WTO course in Geneva.

Zoellick also announced a web site where Africans can access the latest U.S. trade programs and statistics: http://reportweb.usitc.gov/Africa/trade_data.html.

In separate remarks, Rev. Peter Kaleso, minister for Commerce and Industry of Malawi, who chairs the SADC Industry and Trade Ministry Group, thanked Zoellick for making such a historic trip to the region.

Zoellick's kind and encouraging words, Kaleso told the group, support the "spirit of cooperation and partnership between the United States government and the SADC region -- as embodied in the U.S.-SADC Forum.

"The high level of cooperation and partnership," he said, "goes a long way in strengthening relations between the U.S. government and the SADC region" in a wide variety of areas from trade to political and economic development.

Peace and development are essential in the region and stand as "prerequisites" for climates which are conducive to trade and investment, Kaleso said.

"It is for this reason," he added, "that we in the SADC region want to reaffirm our government's commitment to working together with your government in all its efforts to combat terrorism."

Kaleso said the Zoellick visit is of great importance, because "you have not only come to learn about the SADC region but also to offer us more in the region," and he thanked Zoellick for the new initiatives that he had just announced.

Kaleso cautioned however, that for AGOA to be fully successful, the U.S. government must enhance capacity building measures. Those measures must be customized to each member state if they are going to be fully successful, he added.

On AGOA, Kaleso said the historic trade legislation, which allows duty free access to the U.S. market for thousands of goods from eligible African countries, "has already started registering positive results in the SADC region," and many are now exporting textiles and apparel to the United States. He noted that his country, Malawi, has recently exported $14 million in finished apparel to the United States for the first time under AGOA.

He asked, however, that AGOA be extended beyond its present legislative lifetime limit of 2008, which now stands due to the legislative rules under which Congress operates.

Turning to Doha, Kaleso said "It is our hope that the commitment demonstrated by developed countries to assist developing countries will be put in practice."

In closing, Kaleso also thanked Zoellick for his "strong commitment" to the SADC region, and asked that African nations be allowed to join in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

"It is our view that if we can have this arrangement, that will widen our opportunity for our products. Even if in eight years the AGOA initiative ground to a halt but we were in NAFTA, we would still have an opportunity to trade in your region," he said.

Also in attendance was SADC Executive Secretary Prega Ramsamy and U.S. Ambassador to Botswana John E. Lange, who also serves as the U.S. Secretary of State's Special Representative to SADC.

In interviews following the closed portion of the meeting, Juma Ngasongwa, Tanzania's minister of trade and industry, said the session was important because "it shows the commitment of the United States to support Africa and Africa's development."

Peter Kaleso said the meeting served as a direct follow-up to the very successful AGOA Washington forum held last October. "I think you will recall that we did not have a lot of interaction between Africa south of the Sahara and the U.S. government for many years. But there are more and more of these interactions now," and they have served to improve relations, he said.

"We are now beginning to work closely together to improve all aspects of the lives of our own people," Kaleso said, "not only in terms of trade but also in the areas of social and political development and the security of the region, to enhance investment and fight terrorism."

Ambassador Zoellick is the 13th U.S. trade representative and the first to travel to sub-Saharan Africa. His February 12-21 trip began in Kenya and, after his stay in South Africa, concludes in Botswana.