Ethiopia building capacity to maximize benefit from AGOA

Addis Ababa, March 27, 2011 (Addis Ababa, ERA) - Ethiopia is building its capacity to maximize benefits from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) opportunities that the U.S.A. gave for African countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

In an exclusive interview with ENA, U.S.A. Affairs Directorate Director with the Ministry, Ambassador Taye Atskesilassie said that even though AGOA opportunities allow African countries to export more than 6,200 products to the U.S.A. quota and tariff free, Ethiopia is not benefiting as some African countries from the opportunity.

He said in 2008 Ethiopia earned 18 million US dollars through AGOA opportunity. But over the last five years Ethiopian export to the U.S.A. through AGOA opportunity is declining.

According to Ambassador Taye, the reasons include, among others, inadequate knowledge on products that have markets in the U.S.A., less advertisement and high cost of transport.

He said textile products have great market demand in the U.S.A., as several textile factories are under construction Ethiopia is expected to benefit from the opportunity before AGOA ends.