AGOA Forum 2013 on August 12-13 in Ethiopia

07 Aug '13

2 min read

US-Sub Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum 2013, also known as the AGOA Forum, is to be held on August 12 and 13, 2013 in the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Ababa.

The forum is conducted by the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, in association with the United States Government.

This year’s edition of the forum would have the theme ‘Sustainable Transformation through Trade and Technology’.

The Ministerial-level event will include a high level dialogue on the future of US-Africa trade and economic cooperation.

The AGOA Forum is significant as it comes after nearly a year after the third-country fabric provision was extended till September 30, 2015, by the US Government to facilitate African apparel exports to the US.

The forum would be conducted after civil society programs arranged by the Ethiopian African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), on August 10 and 11, 2013.

The Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) in collaboration with the Ethiopian Chambers of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (ECCSA) will also organize a US– Sub Saharan Africa Trade Exhibition to run concurrent with the events.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is the US Government’s signature trade initiative with Sub Saharan Africa countries.

The US initiative is strongly committed to expanding trade and investment, and to supporting broad-based economic opportunity and prosperity in Sub Saharan Africa.

Last month, at the Ethiopian national AGOA response strategy consultative meeting held at the United Nations conference center, Ethiopia undertook an initiative to draw up Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) strategy.

The strategy is aimed at helping the country to benefit from the United States-AGOA Act.

The aim of devising the strategy is to identify key supply side constraints to help the exports of the country to US through the AGOA.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India