New draft of U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act released

Since the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) introduced by the United States for sub-Saharan African countries will expire in September 2015, relevant African countries have recently actively promoted the extension of AGOA. On April 16, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee submitted a new AGOA draft. South Africa is not specifically mentioned in the new draft summary, but US trade negotiator Michael Froman said there is no doubt that South Africa will continue to benefit from AGOA and expressed concern about the start time of South Africa’s semi-annual submission of eligibility review reports to AGOA. There is no objection to the proposal to postpone the decision for three years.