The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is currently conducting its annual review of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which provides favorable access to the U.S. market for products from some 30 African nations. Those nations are supposed to also open their markets to U.S. products, but some of those nations- South Africa and Nigeria in particular- maintain significant trade obstacles for U.S. red meat. U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) President and CEO Dan Halstrom said they expressed those concerns in recent comments that they filed with the USTR.
A public hearing on AGOA was held by USTR last Friday. The Act is set to expire on Sept. 30 unless Congress takes action to renew the program.
A similar trade preferences program exists for the Caribbean, which is also under review by USTR. Halstrom said the USMEF filed comments regarding access under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), urging USTR to consider market access barriers when evaluating whether to recommend any country as a CBI beneficiary.
USTR will submit a report to Congress on the CBI by the end of this year. For more information, visit usmef.org.
