McDermott Statement on the House Ways and Means Committee Passage of AGOA III
For Immediate Release - May 5, 2004

Today's markup is particularly important. It demonstrates once again that this committee is concerned about how U.S. trade policy affects sub Saharan Africa, a place that is home to many of the world's poorest countries and most fragile democracies. The United States is sub Saharan Africa's largest foreign market. The United States is the world's largest economy.

For these reasons, our trade policies are particularly important for the African region. Furthermore, to the approximately 650 million people of sub Saharan Africa, half of whom live on less than $1 per day, we have a special obligation to make sure that our trade policies provide opportunities for economic growth in sub Saharan Africa, not mechanisms to prevent it.

Four years ago, we took the first step toward meeting that obligation and providing real hope and opportunity for sub Saharan Africa. After years of political battle, we finally enacted the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

AGOA aimed to liberalize - to indeed free - sub Saharan African economies from the constraints of tariffs and quotas imposed by the United States. Through AGOA, many of us thought that we could help Africa diversify its exports to create jobs and raise living standards.

By any measure, AGOA has been a success and, to some degree or another, has pleased those of us who were closely involved in crafting the initiative. But today the effectiveness of AGOA is challenged in many significant ways.

First, the provision under AGOA that has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in the apparel industry is to expire. This will wipe out much of the hard fought gains that have occurred in sub Saharan Africa and make AGOA no more effective than the European's African trade preference program.

Stricter rules and the reality that worldwide quotas on apparel disappear in less than a year will simply make African apparel uncompetitive in relation to Africa's East Asian competitors.

Second, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases represent challenges to economic growth in sub Saharan Africa that no trade or economic policy can overcome. HIV/AIDS is slicing off nearly two percentage points of GDP each year in many sub Saharan African countries.

Third, the lack of a developed infrastructure challenges not only health and sanitation systems, but deters business investment, job creation, and trade.

The bill before us begins to address some of the key challenges that thwart Africa's development. The AGOA Acceleration Act aims to help sustain the growth that has occurred in sub Saharan Africa's textile and apparel sector, but it also attempts to help sub Saharan Africa realize the potential that AGOA can provide for other products, particularly agricultural goods.

HR 4103 would also provide Africans some assistance helping to improve infrastructure to help trade flow easier. This bill will further help the development of Africa's tourism and ecotourism industries - industries that create jobs and drive the development and the maintenance of infrastructure. This committee and this Congress must quickly pass the bill before us today.

This bill is thoughtful, realistic, and aims to sustain the initial vision of AGOA.

Many of us are involved in helping and supporting the struggle to improve the political and economic situation in Africa.

Our African brothers and sisters need our partnership and our support as they chart an African course that will be free of foreign assistance, free of corruption, free of oppression, and free of foreign barriers to their goods and services.

Today we participate in a journey with Africa to reach its deserved destiny. Let us listen, debate, learn and, most importantly, let us act.