2013 AGOA Countries – Winners and Losers

Currently, there are 39 Sub-Saharan African countries designated as beneficiary countries under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).  For a complete list, see below.

President Obama terminated the designations of the Republic of Mali and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau as beneficiary countries under the AGOA agreement at the end of last year.

The one “winner” this year is the emerging country of South Sudan which has been added as the most recent beneficiary to the agreement. 

The practical application of the AGOA is that goods imported into the US from a Sub-Saharan beneficiary country enjoy duty-free treatment, which creates an incentive for US buyers to source products made in these African countries.  Such benefit is currently in effect through September 30, 2015.

The benefit becomes applicable however, only under certain circumstances which do not include simple combining or packing operations, or the mere dilution with water or some other substance that does not materially alter the characteristics of the article.

Rather, the duty-free benefit applies where (1) the imports are the growth, product or manufacture of a designated beneficiary country, and (2) the sum of the cost or value of the materials produced in one or more designated beneficiary countries PLUS the direct costs of processing operations performed there or, in any 2 or more designated members of the same association of countries which is treated as 1 country ((under section 506A of the Trade Act of 1974)) is not less than 35% of the appraised value of such article at the time it is entered.

Here is a complete list of countries.  For more information on the AGOA agreement click here, post below or feel free to email me at clark.deanna@gmail.com

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AGOA COUNTRIES

Republic of Angola Republic of Benin Republic of Botswana Burkina Faso Republic of Burundi Republic of Cameroon Republic of Cape Verde Republic of Chad Union of the Comoros Republic of Congo Republic of Côte d’Ivoire Republic of Djibouti Ethiopia Gabonese Republic Republic of The Gambia Republic of Ghana Republic of Guinea Republic of Kenya Kingdom of Lesotho Republic of Liberia

Republic of Malawi Islamic Republic of Mauritania Republic of Mauritius Republic of Mozambique Republic of Namibia Republic of Niger Federal Republic of Nigeria Republic of Rwanda Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe Republic of Senegal Republic of Seychelles Republic of Sierra Leone Republic of South Africa Republic of South Sudan Kingdom of Swaziland United Republic of Tanzania Republic of Togo Republic of Uganda Republic of Zambia