Africa and The Middle East

House lawmakers in both parties on Wednesday voiced strong support for renewing the African Growth and Opportunity Act before it expires next year, committing to improve the two-decade-old trade preference program while hashing out the terms of that extension. The Ways & Means trade subcommittee addressed AGOA, as well as preference programs with Haiti that also are set to expire next year, during a hearing described by Chair Adrian Smith (R-NE) as a “continuation of a deliberate Ways and Means...

Senate Finance Committee ranking member Mike Crapo (R-ID) is pushing for the passage of a legislative package that would include provisions to reauthorize the Generalized System of Preferences, the African Growth and Opportunity Act and other trade preference programs, he said on Wednesday. “I am ready to see GSP, AGOA and potentially other preference programs all passed as a part of a package by the time of the AGOA Forum next month,” Crapo said during a June 5 Senate Finance...

The U.S. Export-Import Bank has never been more active in Africa, members of an advisory committee said this week, responding to an inspector general report charging that Ex-Im in recent years has lacked a clear strategy for the region. The bank’s IG earlier this month issued a report evaluating Ex-Im's activities in sub-Saharan Africa, charging that the bank has had minimal impact on the continent. The report says Ex-Im has not formally established an office to implement its Sub-Sahara Africa...

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Friday released new summaries of U.S.-proposed texts in trade talks with Kenya, describing chapters dealing with customs, trade facilitation and enforcement and the environment that cover increased customs automation, transparency and commitments to strengthen environmental protections, among other provisions. The two parties held the fifth round of negotiations on the U.S.-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership earlier this month ahead of Kenyan President William Ruto’s Washington visit last week. Those discussions primarily...

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) on Friday said he hoped the congressional committees responsible for trade this year would -- “at the very least” -- lay a foundation for renewing the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which he calls critical to U.S. national interests. Coons, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee and a longtime proponent of stronger trade ties with countries in Africa, earlier this year introduced a bill to reauthorize and update AGOA, a trade-preference program with countries...

The U.S. and Kenya plan to create a new joint effort focused on boosting commercial and investment ties, the leaders of the two countries announced on Thursday following talks that included a commitment to new climate-focused cooperation and discussion of their developing trade and investment partnership. During Kenyan President William Ruto’s Thursday state visit, he and President Biden agreed to “sign a Commercial and Investment Partnership, affirming a mutual commitment to deepening commercial and investment ties between our two countries,”...

The top Democrats on the Senate Finance and House Ways & Means committees are calling on U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to “transition” trade discussions underway with Kenya into talks on a comprehensive free trade agreement. In a May 21 letter to Tai, Finance Chair Ron Wyden (OR) and Ways & Means ranking member Richard Neal (MA) said they were “encouraged” by USTR’s progress negotiating the U.S.-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership, launched in 2022, but added that they wanted...