Day: August 24, 2015

The following Q&A is adapted from the 2015 AGOA Forum Preview (15m:44s)

Question: What is the principal obstacle to the development of a local yarn industry in an apparel exporting country such as Kenya? Does AGOA’s “third country fabric” provision in place for 13 years act as a disincentive to such a development?

Florizelle Liser, Assistant US Trade Representative for Africa: That’s a really good question, but the answer is no. What we know is that African producers of apparel, like producers of apparel all around the world, need to have the flexibility to source their input from wherever of those can be produced most effectively, cost effectively for the products that they are sewing. So we want through the “third country fabric” provision to give the African producers of apparel that flexibility. We do know in terms of establishing textiles business on the ground producing those inputs right there in Africa and that more of that indeed is going to happen. The reason is that as U.S. buyers of apparel and this is an enormous market for apparel… as U.S. buyers of apparel source more of their apparel from Africa, then investors in textile mills, which are very expensive, will be incentivized and are being incentivized to actually establish those fabric mills right there in Africa, and then be able to save time, in terms of getting those inputs that are needed for the clothing that is being produced. So we see that happening already: it’s happening in Kenya, it’s happening in Ethiopia and around the continent. And that is what we need to have more of as we go forward in this ten-year extension of AGOA.

What do you think?