Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2006. / The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was signed into law in May
2000 by President Clinton to allow sub-Saharan countries to export
designated products duty-free into the US. AGOA is a temporary measure that
is non-reciprocal and not negotiated by the participating parties. The initiative
was launched to liberalise the markets of developing countries on the road to
become integrated in the global economy.
The initial success of AGOA was limited, with only a few countries making use
of AGOA to increase their exports into the US markets. Problems encountered
were high levels of protectionism from the US and the existence of technical
trade barriers (including sanitary measures in agriculture) and nontariff
barriers (including quotas). African countries are using shipment as the main
transport for exports, and the US barred transshipment due to corruption that
occurred in the past. The AGOA also made provision for 'special provisions'
measures to enable AGOA eligible countries to export apparel and textile to
the US. The export of apparel was very successful until the Multifibre
Agreement expired in 2005, leading to relocation of apparel factories to lower
cost bases. The real beneficiaries from AGOA are oil-exporting countries that
make up more than 90% of total AGOA benefits. South Africa is the only
country who succeeded in diversified AGOA exports.
AGOA has been supplemented by AGOA II (extending the product range) and
AGOA III (extending the expiry date to 2015). After the EU-SA Free Trade
Agreement has been concluded in 1999, the US started with FTA negotiations
with the South African Customs Union (SACU) to improve the exposure of US
products to the SACU market and to decrease the trade deficit. However, the
agenda of the FTA negotiations included second generation issues of
intellectual property rights, trade in services, investment and government
procurement. The SACU negotiators learnt some lessons from the EU-SA
FTA and progress was slow.
The extension of AGOA to 2015 saw a decrease in the urgency of striking a
SACU-US FTA. Negotiations slowed down and the decision was made in April
2006 to conduct talks on a lower level. This breathing time can be used by the
SACU negotiators to develop an aggressive offensive strategy for future
negotiations, and to build competency against the efficient and offensive US
negotiators. The US-SACU FTA must still be pursued to ensure that the
benefits of AGOA are locked in. It will be beneficial for SACU if the different
needs for all the SACU countries are addressed and the negotiations are
done in incremental steps .
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/21977 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Van Wyk, Albertus Maritz |
| Contributors | Breytenbach, Willie, Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Graduate School of Business. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 122 leaves : ill. |
| Rights | Stellenbosch University |
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