AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act)

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is a nonreciprocal/unilateral trade preference scheme that provides duty-free treatment to U.S.A imports of certain products from eligible sub-Saharan African countries.

Ethiopian eligibility to the AGOA since 2001 and its direct access to the US market without payment of duties and taxes have contributed significantly to the inflow of capitals into the country in the manufacturing sector mainly in the light manufacturing sectors and absorb many employments.

After Ethiopia started to benefit more from AGOA in the past few years ,Currently the two most successful exporting industries under the AGOA, apparel and leather, employed more than 200,000 people directly among this 80 percent of them are young women.

If the US pulls Ethiopia out of AGOA, not only will millions of people be harmed, but investors will also be able to load their machines and flee to other African countries that benefit from AGOA.

From the manufacturing enterprises industry parks in Ethiopia 30 enterprises export directly to the USA through the AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act). It is certainly clear that if US follows through and remove preferential trade arrangements of AGOA, the manufacturing sector of Ethiopia could face a hard threat.

Nowadays thousands of life’s are at high risk because of the US keeps demanding to stop the market access under the African Growth and Opportunity Act in Ethiopia.