US trade preferences to cast wide net for exports

The spotless production floor of Pecheries Frigorifiques du Senegal is a hive of women in white coats turning fresh-caught tuna into cakes that slide into sterile foil pouches gaily printed with the labels of their clients.

With duty-free status under a five-year-old program to boost trade ties between Africa and the United States, tuna cakes like these could be appearing on grocery store shelves from Boston to Bakersfield, part of a different kind of effort to spur development on the world's poorest continent.

"The US market is extremely competitive and we are not blind to the difficulties we face in putting our product out there," said Faycal Sharara, president of PFS, bemoaning the low-cost and high-volume capacity of Asian competitors.

"But at least with AGOA, our product, and all African products, have a decent shot."

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was signed by US president Bill Clinton in May 2000 to integrate Africa into the global economy by boosting trade with the United States, the continent's largest single country market.

In the five years since, AGOA has waived customs duties and import fees for 37 African countries on items from minerals to mangoes and tube socks in between, for 26.6 billion dollars in 2004.

US exports to Africa in that same period hit 8.6 billion dollars.

Oil represents the lion's share of what Africa sells to the United States -- some 87 percent of exports -- concentrating AGOA's influence into a handful of countries including Angola, Chad and Gabon and Nigeria, the continent's top oil producer and ranked 11th worldwide.

The continent's largest economy, South Africa, earned 1.7 billion dollars from exports to the United States in 2003, according to AGOA figures.