Africa and The Middle East

Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for African Affairs Constance Hamilton on Sunday will lead a “broad-based” delegation of Biden administration officials to Kenya to discuss trade and investment issues, according to USTR. The delegation will include officials from USTR as well as the State, Commerce, Labor and Agriculture departments, USTR spokesman Adam Hodge said in a statement on Friday. “The delegation will meet with Kenyan government officials to explore opportunities for enhanced trade and investment engagement across a wide range of...

The African Continental Free Trade Area offers an opportunity to show that trade agreements can benefit more than “large corporations,” the AfCFTA secretary general told House lawmakers on Thursday during a hearing on how U.S. support can help. Wamkele Mene, the first ever secretary general for the 54-nation deal that went into effect early last year, testified before the House Foreign Affairs Africa, global health and global human rights subcommittee during the hearing, titled “Understanding the African Continental Free Trade...

Citing rising costs that are straining American farmers, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is asking the U.S. International Trade Commission to end import duties on Moroccan fertilizer and refrain from imposing them on other foreign suppliers. Reps. Cindy Axne (D-IA) and Tracey Mann (R-KS) and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) led more than 80 lawmakers in sending a March 17 letter to ITC Chair Jason Kearns calling on the ITC to provide relief to farmers struggling with the high costs of...

The Agriculture Department, which recently restarted in-person trade missions for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, will sponsor trips to Kenya, the United Kingdom and other countries in 2022. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service has scheduled trips to London in June, the Philippines in July, Kenya at the end of October and Spain at the end of November. The Trump administration launched trade negotiations with Kenya and the UK, but the...

The options for the African Growth and Opportunity Act’s future, with an expiration date in 2025 after 25 years, range from the unthinkable to the “bold and creative,” according to this Center for Strategic and International Studies report , which takes particular note of rising China “influence” in sub-Saharan Africa. “With Africa about to emerge as a major economic powerhouse, the continent offers significant market-oriented business opportunities that can ensure shared global prosperity,” the CSIS analysts -- Daniel Runde, who...

The U.S. International Trade Commission is launching a fact-finding investigation into the African Growth and Opportunity Act and its usage. The ITC announced on Feb. 17 that the probe, requested in January by House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA), will provide “an overview of the program and industry case studies to better understand the relative competitiveness of each sector and its impact on workers, economic development, and poverty reduction.” Those case studies will involve cotton, apparel, certain...

The U.S. will share news on the U.S.-Kenya trade relationship in the “coming weeks” as the two sides explore ways to deepen economic ties, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi said on Tuesday. Her remarks come two years after the Trump administration began free trade agreement negotiations with Kenya, which did not yield a deal. Those talks are “on pause” as the administration takes “stock of where we are in these relationships” in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, USTR...

The U.S. hopes to deepen economic ties with the United Kingdom and Kenya in ways that might not resemble traditional trade “exercises and vehicles,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Monday, two years after the Trump administration began but did not complete free trade agreement negotiations with both countries. Asked during a National Asian Pacific American Bar Association event whether she had any plans to revive the Trump-era talks, Tai noted the administration has put the negotiations “on pause”...