I am heading to an international fashion conference to present my findings and receive an award for an essay I wrote on the African Fashion Industry and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) agreement.
Its relationship to the African fashion industry stems from AGOAs provisions covering textiles and apparel.
In short, it provides duty-free treatment of certain textiles and apparel products so long as it is all originating from AGOA countries, with certain exceptions to this rule for merchandise made in “lesser developed countries.”
Unfortunately, AGOA is set to expire in 2015 and has yet to obtain congressional intent to continue.
Of more urgent concern is that in only 6 months the special provisions for the lesser developed countries will expire as well.
With the unpredictable continuation of AGOA’s provisions, how can buyers plan production runs when the “economics” of sourcing from Africa cannot be determined?
For the U.S. government – and I’m talking about both party lines – to claim to want to encourage business, this lack of action sure does beg the questions as to whether Congress is serious about doing this or not.
Or, perhaps the government has yet to understand the ancillary trade benefits across all sectors that could result from the stimulation of the textiles and apparel sectors of African economies…
In my paper, I posit that between the growing awareness and consumption of African fashion – thanks in large part to technology - in tandem with the benefits flowing from the AGOA agreement, the potential for a “triple win” is possible for
1. African Designers
2. African Economies (through growth of the textile and apparel sectors), and
3. US Purchasers of African Made products
This of course, is dependent upon many factors, including a real commitment on the part of the US as opposed to the unpredictable short-term extensions, along with streamlining protocols for foreign export to US import AGOA compliance records.
This could further be boosted by parallel incentives creation on the part of AGOA countries but again, without a real commitment by the US, why would national banks and other national institutions bother?
For more information on the AGOA agreement, please refer to other articles written in the month of March in this blog International Trade for Everyday People.
Questions/comments? Post below or email me at clark.deanna@gmail.com
Its relationship to the African fashion industry stems from AGOAs provisions covering textiles and apparel.
In short, it provides duty-free treatment of certain textiles and apparel products so long as it is all originating from AGOA countries, with certain exceptions to this rule for merchandise made in “lesser developed countries.”
Unfortunately, AGOA is set to expire in 2015 and has yet to obtain congressional intent to continue.
Of more urgent concern is that in only 6 months the special provisions for the lesser developed countries will expire as well.
With the unpredictable continuation of AGOA’s provisions, how can buyers plan production runs when the “economics” of sourcing from Africa cannot be determined?
For the U.S. government – and I’m talking about both party lines – to claim to want to encourage business, this lack of action sure does beg the questions as to whether Congress is serious about doing this or not.
Or, perhaps the government has yet to understand the ancillary trade benefits across all sectors that could result from the stimulation of the textiles and apparel sectors of African economies…
In my paper, I posit that between the growing awareness and consumption of African fashion – thanks in large part to technology - in tandem with the benefits flowing from the AGOA agreement, the potential for a “triple win” is possible for
1. African Designers
2. African Economies (through growth of the textile and apparel sectors), and
3. US Purchasers of African Made products
This of course, is dependent upon many factors, including a real commitment on the part of the US as opposed to the unpredictable short-term extensions, along with streamlining protocols for foreign export to US import AGOA compliance records.
This could further be boosted by parallel incentives creation on the part of AGOA countries but again, without a real commitment by the US, why would national banks and other national institutions bother?
For more information on the AGOA agreement, please refer to other articles written in the month of March in this blog International Trade for Everyday People.
Questions/comments? Post below or email me at clark.deanna@gmail.com
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