African leader appeals to US for 'more time' on trade

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ACCRA, July 19 (AFP): Ghana's President John Kufuor urged the United States yesterday to extend a preferential trade agreement for Africa by at least five years, to give the continent more time to boost its infrastructure.
Kufuor told the opening of the sixth AGOA (Africa Growth and Opportunity Act) conference in Accra that African countries were unable to exploit the initiative's advantages within the deadline set by the deal.
The US has given the continent up to 2015 to avail itself of the opportunities under the act, which was signed into law in 2000 by then US president Bill Clinton and gives African exports duty-free status on the US market.
"We have only eight years left to take advantage of the opportunity to export as many as 6,400 items to the United States market, estimated at more than 10 trillion dollars," Kufuor said.
"Given the time constraints and the very serious capacity challenges, Africa, we must admit, can hardly exploit the benefits of this initiative anywhere near to the full," he said.
"I will therefore appeal to the government of the United States to consider extending the time span of AGOA to beyond 20 years," he said.
"This will be the surest way to render African countries competitive on the United States market is to grow Africa's economies," he added.
He said two-day conference provides an opportunity to bring to global attention to the changes that are taking place in Africa since 2000 when the AGOA initiative started.
Thousands of ministers, trade experts and private sector representatives from across Africa and the United States are attending the forum, aimed at boosting African exports to the US market.
President George W Bush meanwhile pledged in a video address to the conference that the United States would "provide technical assistance to help African nations strengthen their financial markets," and would help "create several new private equity funds that will mobilise up to a billion dollars of additional private investment in Africa."
"By taking these steps we can help African entrepreneurs find access to the capital they need so they can grow their businesses and create jobs across the continent," he said.
"I stand with you in your efforts to spread freedom, opportunity across Africa," he said.
The delegates were set to focus on ways of strengthening non-oil exports, including agriculture and textile products.
Today, more than 90 per cent of exports from the world's poorest continent go to the United States.
Host Ghana is among 38 of the 48 sub-Saharan African countries eligible to participate in AGOA.
In return, the countries are obligated to move towards open market economies and carry out a number of other reforms.