Text: U.S.Contributes $800,000 to COMESA, Zoellick Says

USTR: trade group must be "model for all Africa"

Nairobi -- U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick told Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) ministers in Nairobi February 14 that (COMESA) "needs to be a very successful model for all of Africa." For that reason, he said, the office of the USTR, with assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), "is making a $800,000 contribution from our AGOA technical assistance to COMESA."

Five hundred thousand U.S. dollars of that contribution will be used "to assist the eligible COMESA members to capitalize on AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act) through market linkages and helping the duty free export of the products," he said.

The remainder ($300,000) will be used to strengthen the COMESA Court of Justice in dealing with commercial conflicts, Zoellick said.

Following is the text of Zoellick's remarks of February 14:

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Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Nairobi, Kenya

February 14, 2002

Remarks by USTR Ambassador Robert B. Zoellick, at the inaugural session of the United States COMESA Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA)

AMBASSADOR ZOELLICK: Jambo, I want to start by saying that Minister Biwott is trying to add to my vocabulary, but so far I am primarily working through the animals that I hope to see here today. I want to first thank all of you for coming and in particular, Minister Biwott, and Secretary General Mwencha, and also the Minister from Burundi for honoring us by organizing this together. I particularly wanted to meet with all of you because I have been very impressed with the work that COMESA has done and how regional integration is the key part for the trade agenda for East Africa and the world. I think we have an excellent agenda today in terms of topics that I hope to discuss throughout my trip to Africa; in particular, AGOA and the follow up to the Doha Agenda, capacity building, and frankly my main purpose is to try to listen and learn from your experience on the ground about how these efforts are working or how they need to be improved.

Before I make a few additional comments about events, I do also want to thank Ambassador Carson and his Mission who have done a superb job and in particular, also, Mr. Wisecarver and Greg Howe from our AID Mission, because we have learned in the United States we need to have an inextricable connection between our AID work and our trade work because they can be mutually supportive. I was very pleased that our AID mission feels as we do in the trade ministry that COMESA is an organization that is very important for trade within the region and with the United States and so we want to try to support it, and they were instrumental in helping us with the grant that I am going to mention today.

As the Secretary General said, we had a chance to sign a trade and facilitation agreement this October with COMESA, and this is the very first of such agreements that the United States has signed with a regional organization in sub-Saharan Africa. And let me tell you the reason why. We were very impressed with the work that COMESA has done, and we know it is not easy work to try to deal with the challenges of trade and support regional integration, and I want to compliment the Secretary General and all of you for all your work in establishing the free trade area. We know that there are subsequent steps, but it strikes me that you have take some very important ones. Equally important, we have been very impressed by the effort of COMESA to back up the trade regime with some other important elements, for example the regional trade facilitation program to deal with the trade insurance issue which, as Minister Biwatt said, is fundamental to moving forward and creating the right financial environment for trade. The small and medium scale enterprise initiative, which is important to build a stronger and broader base for trade in Africa. And also, as I understand it, you are working with members to take steps to improve the investment environment and also competition policy. All these strike me as very important initiatives, and it's one reason I wanted to be with you today and to announce at least a modest form of help to try to support you.

Working with our colleagues at AID, I am pleased to announce today that we are making an $800,000 contribution from our AGOA technical assistance to COMESA because we believe that COMESA needs to be a very successful model for all of Africa. Of this amount, we would like to use $500,000 to assist the eligible COMESA members to capitalize on AGOA through additional information and market linkages and facilitating the duty free export of the products. And $300,000 is focused particularly of the effort to strengthen the COMESA Court of Justice because I also feel this is a very vital development in terms of dealing with commercial conflicts. And I think it, again, provides a historic model that I hope others will be able to draw on. And so, again, with the help of our colleagues at AID and Mr. Wisecarver and Mr. Howe, in particular, we are pleased to offer this modest support.

In addition, working with Rosa Whitaker, we are trying to follow up on another effort we've done, and that is, for each COMESA member that is eligible for AGOA and a member of the WTO, we would like to offer one scholarship for a trade official to participate in the WTO's comprehensive training course on the WTO in Geneva. I also want to say that, at least from the perspective of the United States, that it is striking that the early efforts you have made already seem to be making a difference. I noticed that the growth rate for the COMESA countries was about 3.2 percent, which is below the target obviously of what we would like to have, but is certainly well above the figure for sub-Saharan Africa as a whole.

So, to those of us who came from Washington to attend this meeting, this is a very important part of our overall effort in Africa, because we feel that regional integration and regional trade are key parts of strengthening Africa's engagement with the world and in that sense, COMESA like many things that I now see on the horizon, are particularly important because they are African ideas. This is Africa seizing hold of its own future and is incumbent on those of us from outside Africa, but who want to help Africa, to try to engage Africa's emerging institutions in a way that help you proceed with building more prosperity for your economies and coming to grips with the trying challenges of poverty that too many Africans still face.

So I thank you for coming and I look forward to proceeding with the agenda.

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