Executive Summary. The key points made by ACTIF in all the meetings were:

Transcription

1 Executive Summary The African Cotton and Textile Industries Federation (ACTIF) conducted an advocacy mission to Washington, D.C. during September 30 October 4, 2013, to meet with Congressional and Administration officials, as well as with the African Diplomatic Corps and other key stakeholders, to support renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) beyond its current expiration on September 30, ACT President Paul Ryberg advised ACTIF on the development of the mission and organized the program of meetings in Washington, D.C. The mission was complicated by the fact that the U.S. Federal Government shut down on October 1, 2013, due to the funding lapse caused by Congress failure to pass a budget for Fiscal Year (See related article in this edition of the Trade Report.) Several meetings, especially those with Administration officials, were canceled as a result. The key points made by ACTIF in all the meetings were: AGOA must be renewed quickly, and no later than during Any delay into 2015 raises the serious risk of devastating job losses, much worse than those experienced in 2012 when renewal of the AGOA third country fabric provision was delayed until the last minute. AGOA must be renewed for a sustainably long period of time in order to provide the stability and predictability necessary to attract investment particularly in the context of the development of regionally integrated value chains, especially in the capital intensive textile sector. Renewal must be for no less than 15 years. The AGOA third country fabric provision, which accounts for more than 90% of AGOA apparel imports, must be renewed for the full term of the extension of AGOA. The ACTIF mission was an unqualified success in launching the discussion in Washington over renewal of AGOA beyond It was clear, however, that there will be serious challenges. First, given the numerous other serious issues that require its attention, it will be difficult to convince Congress to act to renew AGOA prior to Once Congress attention has been focused on AGOA renewal, budget issues will make it difficult to fund the proposed extension for at least 15 years. Moreover, various new participants in the AGOA process are proposing various improvements to AGOA, some of which are likely to be controversial and could delay the renewal process. The ACTIF delegation met twice with representatives of the U.S. apparel importers and retailers. The discussions produced a joint statement on the need for prompt action to renew AGOA, which statement has been widely distributed in Congress and the Administration. A copy of the joint statement is reprinted at the end of this edition of the Trade Report. 1

2 U.S. Textile and Apparel Imports from Africa (in million sme) Country Jan Aug Jan. Aug % Change Botswana % Ethiopia % Ghana % Kenya % Lesotho % Madagascar % Malawi % Mauritius % South Africa % Swaziland % Tanzania % Sub Sahara Africa % Botswana, South Africa, and Swaziland experienced declines in January August 2013, while Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, and Tanzania all witnessed growth. Apparel imports from Madagascar had staged a surprising recovery during January July 2012, increasing by 3.54% to million sme from January July 2011, despite Madagascar s suspension from AGOA eligibility in But Madagascar s rally stalled in August 2012, and imports from Madagascar declined since then until May 2013, when they increased by 20.2%. Since May imports from Madagascar have increased modestly by volume up 12.2%, but they fallen by value down 36.2%. It is unclear whether imports from Madagascar will continue to recover, stabilize or contract again. Africa s apparel exports have become much more concentrated since the expiration of the MFA at the end of 2004 in just a handful of products, especially cotton trousers, knit cotton shirts and woven cotton shirts, which together now account for more than 90% of U.S. apparel imports from Africa. Over the same period, apparel imports from China were up 250%. To make matters worse, through 2010, much of this growth in imports from China was concentrated in those products that matter most to Africa. China s exports in many of these key categories leveled off and even declined a little, which seems to have contributed to the modest growth in imports from Africa during However, apparel imports from China in those product categories that matter most to Africa have started to grow again in 2013, which is cause for concern. 2

3 U.S. Imports from Africa, ($ million) Product Imports % Change No. of Largest Exporter Imports Exporters Petroleum Products $16, $37, % 12 Nigeria: $18,853 Minerals/Precious Stones $3, $5, % 25 South Africa: $3,437 Agriculture $ $2, % 25 Cote d Ivoire: $851 Motor Vehicles and Parts $ $2, ,239% 1 South Africa: $2,015 Apparel $ $ % 14 Lesotho: $300 Forestry Products $ $ % 11 Cameroon: $29 Seafood $ $ % 13 South Africa: $26 Footwear $0.686 $ ,0139% 6 Ethiopia: $7 Other Products $ $1, % Total $22, $49, % Net: 36* (Source: U.S. International Trade Commission Dataweb) * 36 AGOA beneficiaries with significant AGOA exports (more than $1.0 million) to the United States in 2012 are: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Comoros, Congo (ROC), Cote d Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia. The AGOA countries with the most diverse exports to the United States (and the number of major product categories exported by each) are: Cameroon (4), Cote d Ivoire (3), Ethiopia (4), Ghana (5), Kenya (5), Mauritius (5), Nigeria (5), South Africa (8), Tanzania( 4), and Uganda (4). Report on ACTIF s Advocacy Mission to Washington, D.C. to Support Renewal of AGOA Our Lobbyist Mr. Paul Ryberg of Messrs. Ryberg & Smith LLC set up a comprehensive program of meetings for the ACTIF delegation during September 30 4 October, Members of the ACTIF delegation consisted of: Mr. Jas Bedi ACTIF Chairman Mr. Rajeev Arora ACTIF Executive Director Min Li Executive Secretary of Lesotho Textile Exporters Association Guy M Bengue President of Cote d Ivoire Trade and Investment Promotion Board (APEXCI) Eric Buchot Representative of the International Trade Center in Geneva Also in attendance at the meetings were: James Kiiru Embassy of the Republic of Kenya Christopher Nyaka Embassy of Lesotho Paul Ryberg Lobbyist 3

4 Mr. Paul Ryberg and his Firm has over the years been associated with matters relating to AGOA and has a wide range of associates, managed to acquire appointments with key Congressional and Administration officials, as well as key private sector stakeholders for the ACTIF delegation. These included: Monday, September 30 th 2013 Various representatives of U.S. apparel importers and retailers: Julie Hughes, USA ITA; Steve Lamar, AAFA; Stephanie Lester, Retail Leaders; Jon Gold, NRF; Behnaz Kibra, House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Democrat staff; Rebecca Eubanks & Shane Warren, Senate Finance Committee Republican staff; Eric Williams & Margot Sullivan, Office of Rep. Karen Bass (D CA); Tuesday, October 1 st 2013 Susan Driano & Halie Soifer Office of Sen. Chris Coons; Jayme White, Staff Director, Senate Finance Trade Subcommittee; Auggie Tantillo, Executive Director & Sarah Pierce, National Council of Textile Organizations ; Scott Eisner & Danielle Walker, US Chamber of Commerce; Wednesday, October 2 nd 2013 Mwangi Kimenyi & Zenia Lewis African Growth Initiative, Brookings Institution; Gail Strickler, Assistant USTR for Textiles, Widener Building; Jessica Lee, staff of Rep. Jim McDermott (D WA); Aubrey Hruby, The Whitaker Group; Thursday, October 3 rd 2013 Washington International Trade Association (WITA) Angela Ellard, House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Republican Staff; Carrie Abendroth & Daniel Wolfe of USAID; Chelsea Thomas, Senate Finance Committee Democrat Staff; Jennifer Cooke, Center for Strategic and International Studies; Friday, October 4 th 2013 Follow up meeting with US Importers/retailers African Ambassadors Earl Gast, USAID Assistant Administrator, Bureau of Africa; and Rep. Todd Young (R IN), member of the House Ways and Means Committee 4

5 DAY 1 1. CONGRESSIONAL MEETINGS Monday, September 30 th 2013 The ACTIF Delegation with key Congressional staff officials directly responsible for the legislation to renew AGOA including the Republican and Democratic staffs of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee and the Democratic and Republican staffs of the Senate Finance Committee, as well as the Staff Director of the Senate Finance Trade Subcommittee. In addition, the delegation met with Rep. Todd Young (R IN), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, as well as with the staff of several other Members of Congress who have traditionally been champions of AGOA. A very strong support for the renewal of AGOA was expressed in all the meetings, though sometimes subject to certain caveats. Following is a brief summary of the Congressional meetings (in chronological order), along with their highlights: a. Behnaz Kibria, House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Democratic Staff Behnaz works for the Ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Sander Levin (D MI), one of the leading supporters of AGOA. Behnaz expressed unconditional support for AGOA renewal, but cautioned that it might not be realistic to expect renewal prior to She also advised that AGOA will not be made permanent and mentioned that it is not practical to recommend AGOA to be renewed first and so called improvements taken up later; rather, that the Congress takes up AGOA renewal and improvement at the same time as one package. She confirmed that she was not aware of any new ideas for AGOA improvement but only of the old ideas of expanding the list of eligible. 5

6 b. Shane Warren and Rebecca Eubanks, Senate Finance Committee Republican Staff Although they confirmed that the Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee will support AGOA renewal, they cautioned that funding a ten year renewal will be difficult and suggested that a five year renewal is probably the longest that can be realistically achieved. c. Eric Williams and Margot Sullivan, Staff of Rep. Karen Bass (D CA) Rep. Bass is the Ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee and has become one of the leading AGOA champions in the House. It is therefore not surprising that her staff expressed strongly supported the timely renewal of AGOA for at least 15 years and the full extension of the third country fabric provision renewal. They showed a lot of optimism that AGOA would be renewed in 2014 though on the other hand, they are interested in proposals to improve AGOA and the concept of making it two way. 6

7 DAY 2 Tuesday, October 1 st 2013 d. Jayme White, Staff Director of the Senate Finance Trade Subcommittee Jayme expressed support towards the timely renewal of AGOA for at least 15 years and the renewal of the full extension of the third country fabric provision. Jayme was optimistic that AGOA would be renewed in DAY 3 Wednesday, October 2 nd 2013 e. Halie Soifer and Susan Driano, Staff of Senator Chris Coons (D DE) 7

8 Senator Coons, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Africa Subcommittee has become one of the leading champions in the Senate for AGOA. His staff strongly supported the timely renewal of AGOA for at least 15 years and the full extension of the third country fabric provision renewal. f. Jessica Lee, Staff of Rep. Jim McDermott (D WA) Rep. McDermott, often referred to as the father of AGOA is the one who first introduced the first legislation that eventually led to the enactment of AGOA. It is therefore not surprising that his staff openly expressed complete and strong support for timely renewal of AGOA for at least 15 years and the renewing of the third country fabric provision for the full extension. DAY 4 Thursday, October 3 rd 2013 g. Angela Ellard, Chief Trade Counsel, House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Angela is the most critical House staff official for purposes of AGOA renewal. As Chief Trade Counsel for the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, she is the key gatekeeper for all trade related legislation. Her main interests were in whether extending the third country fabric provision would encourage or discourage vertical integration and she showed concerned over the EU EPAs and whether AGOA should remain a unilateral preference program if the African countries are willing to open their markets to EU goods and services. ACTIF Chairman, Jas Bedi responded forcefully saying that the vast majority of goods being imported from the EU as well as from the United States for that matter already enter EAC countries duty free, and that progress in that direction is already being made by both COMESA and SADC. Thus, the EU EPAs should not have much effect on the competitiveness of goods from the United States. 8

9 Angela not being familiar with this fact opted to seek more details. Her other deep concern was on the proposals for extending access to third country fabric to South Africa. h. Chelsea Thomas, Democratic Staff of the Senate Finance Committee Chelsea is the key staff official on the Senate Finance Committee regarding AGOA renewal. Her position is comparable to that of Angela Ellard in the House. She voiced her strong support for timely renewal of AGOA for at least 15 years and for renewing the third country fabric provision for the full extension. She however cautioned that AGOA renewal might not be until 2015 and that the Finance Committee plans to convene a series of stakeholder consultations on trade legislation in the months to come so as to hear new ideas on improving AGOA. Chelsea stated that ACTIF will be invited to participate in the session devoted to AGOA renewal. DAY 5 Friday, October 4 th 2013 i. Rep. Todd Young (R IN) The delegation s final Congressional meeting was with Rep. Todd Young, a two term Republican Congressman from Indiana. He is a member of the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over AGOA. He mentioned that Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp has asked him to become involved with the renewal of AGOA. Rep. Young, therefore, was eager to learn more about AGOA and ACTIF s position on its renewal and it was agreed that some follow up information on AGOA imports would be provide to Rep. Young s staff. He was very supportive and agreed to stay in touch as legislative proposals begin to be drafted and move forward. Rep. Young was placed as a potential key ally in the AGOA renewal process. 9

10 2. ADMINISTRATION MEETINGS DAY 5 Friday, October 4 th 2013 The biggest disappointment of the mission was the cancelation of some of the meetings that had been scheduled with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and with the State Department due to the government shutdown. The meetings arranged were meant to be with senior level Administration officials directly involved with AGOA. ACTIF will need to opportunities to present its views on AGOA renewal to these key officials. All was not lost as the meeting with Earl Gast Assistant Administrator for the Africa Bureau, U.S. Agency for International Development was held as scheduled. USAID is one of Administration agencies involved in developing AGOA policy, but not one of the lead agencies. Nonetheless, the meeting became even more important in light of the cancelation of the meetings with USTR and the State Department. Mr. Gast showed full support of the positions advocated by ACTIF. A pre meeting had earlier been held with USAID staff to prepare for the meeting with Mr. Gast and also to discuss ACTIF USAID operational issues. The meeting with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) staff was one of the meetings canceled due to the shutdown. Thus, ITC has been requested by USTR to initiate some factual investigations relating to the AGOA renewal. ACTIF would therefore, need to pursue other communications avenues with the ITC to ensure that its views form part of the study that would be prepared by the ITC. 10

11 3. AFRICAN DIPLOMATIC CORPS DAY 5 Friday, October 4 th 2013 A meeting between the ACTIF delegation and the African Diplomatic Corps was hosted and chaired by Ambassador Soborun of Mauritius. Present at the meeting were the Ambassadors of (in alphabetical order) Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d Ivoire, Kenya, and Lesotho. The Embassies of the Republics of Cameroon and Zambia were also represented. The African Diplomatic Corps has been very active in pushing for AGOA renewal. Prior to the 2013 AGOA Forum which was held in Addis Ababa Ethiopia in August, several meetings were held between the African Diplomatic Corps and stakeholders so as to come up with a list of recommendations for AGOA renewal. ACTIF was represented at these meetings by our lobbyist Mr. Ryberg. The outcome of the meeting was very clear, the position of the African Ambassadors and the recommendations of ACTIF were one and the same. The African Ambassadors policy recommendations were presented at the AGOA Forum, and were officially adopted by the African Ministers. For our purposes, most important among the Ambassadors recommendations are their positions that AGOA be renewed for at least 15 years and that the third country fabric provision be extended for the full term of the renewal. In its AGOA position paper, ACTIF proposed that AGOA should be renewed for years, but in no event less than 10 years but the Ambassadors advised ACTIF to alter its position and instead appeal for a renewal for not less than 15 years, of which ACTIF obliged. ACTIF was requested to prepare a revised position paper reflecting this change in its position. The African Diplomatic Corps pledged to work very closely with ACTIF on AGOA renewal. 11

12 4. PRIVATE SECTOR MEETINGS The ACTIF delegation met with three key private sector groups: i. A coalition of U.S. apparel importers and retailers groups; ii. iii. The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), which represents the U.S. domestic textile industry; The U.S. Chamber of Commerce. AAFA arranged for the Washington International Trade Association (WITA) to hold a meeting at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center on AGOA renewal : While the ACTIF delegation was in Washington, and made sure Mr. Bedi was a panelist speaker. The meeting had a remarkable attendance and other panelists included Steve Lamar of the AAFA, Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool of South Africa and Eric Trachtenberg, a trade consultant. The Obama Administration and numerous Congressional leaders have identified renewal of AGOA, on a seamless basis, as a trade priority. African Ambassadors have also recently announced recommendations, with Washington preparing to review and gearing up for renewal for AGOA over the coming months. It would be good to note that Mr. Bedi s remarks at the meeting were well received by the audience. 12

13 DAY 1 Monday, September 30 th 2013 a. U.S. Apparel Importers and Retailers Representatives of the U.S. Apparel Importers and Retailers, the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA), U.S. Association of Importers of Apparel and Textile (USA ITA), the National Retail Federation (NRF), and the Retail Leaders Association (RLA) have been traditional allies in the original enactment of AGOA and in connection past amendments to AGOA, including the renewal of the third country fabric provision last year. The ACTIF delegation met with them as part of this mission to cement and reinvigorate this alliance. The effort was a complete success, and the positions of the two groups are now fully aligned. The only caveat to this was that the importers/retailers advised ACTIF not to oppose the extending of a single transformation rule of origin to apparel from Vietnam under the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade negotiations. ACTIF has in fact been part of an international association of apparel industries that supports limiting apparel from Vietnam to the traditional yarn forward rule of origin. ACTIF organized follow up meetings with the importers/retailers at the end of the mission so as to coordinate ongoing cooperation, at which it was agreed that the groups would issue a joint press release on AGOA renewal. Mr. Ryberg worked with the importers/retailers on the joint statement, which read as follows: The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) plays a vital role in the development and support of a competitive U.S. African textile and apparel trade partnership, a critical step to developing a broader reciprocal commercial relationship with AGOA countries. AGOA has created more than 300,000 direct jobs in Africa, and AGOA imports are important for the millions of American workers in apparel retailing, manufacturing and importing companies. 13

14 Originally enacted in 2000, AGOA has enjoyed widespread bipartisan support and has been modified and extended several times. It is currently authorized through September Representing the apparel manufacturing, brand, and retail industries in Africa and the United States, we urge the following: i.) ii.) iii.) iv.) AGOA must be renewed as soon as possible, ideally during 2013, but in no event later than Since sourcing decisions are made many months in advance, renewal needs to occur soon for it to be truly seamless. Any delay into 2015, especially in light of last year's last minute renewal of the third country fabric provision, will discourage continued sourcing and new investment, resulting in the loss of trade and jobs in both Africa and the United States. AGOA should be renewed for a long enough period at least 15 years to ensure the predictability necessary to support trade and investment decisions. Shorter term renewals will not provide enough certainty to enable the industry to make capital intensive investment decisions necessary to attract textile investments or affect long term sourcing partnership decisions. The third country fabric provision should be renewed for the full duration of the AGOA renewal. This provision has become central to AGOA. Renewing it for a shorter duration than the full program would be tantamount to renewing the entire program for that shorter duration. Moreover, further vertical integration into upstream textile production requires maintenance of a healthy downstream apparel sector, which in turn is dependent upon the third country fabric provision. All AGOA beneficiary countries should be able to use third country fabric provisions. Unequal application of this provision lessens the positive impact of AGOA and retards regional integration efforts. Our organizations are committed to working with other stakeholders to achieve these objectives to support African trade and development, as well as the U.S. jobs that depend on that trade partnership. DAY 2 Tuesday, October 1 st 2013 b. National Council of Textile Organizations Before the original enactment of AGOA, the U.S. domestic textile industry strenuously opposed AGOA. Later on, a significant effort was devoted to developing common ground with NCTO and to either eliminate or at least convince them to consider their opposition to AGOA. For example, as mentioned above, ACTIF has collaborated with NCTO in the creation of an international coalition of apparel industries opposed to granting apparel from Vietnam a single transformation rule of origin under TPP. 14

15 The new leadership at NCTO has taken up a more vocal position on textile and apparel trade issues. Thus, ACTIF s meeting with NCTO was to try to ensure that the alliance remained intact and to convince NCTO not to oppose renewal of AGOA, and in particular the extension of the third country fabric provision. NCTO s new president Auggie Tantillo was cordial to the ACTIF delegation and showed commitment to working together on issues of common interest. However, he stressed that preventing Vietnam from obtaining a single transformation rule of origin for apparel under TPP was not their top priority, and that NCTO could not do anything that might undermine those efforts. Auggie mentioned that USTR officials have advised NCTO that their credibility on the yarn forward rule of origin for apparel under TPP would be undermined if they took a more lenient position on other apparel import programs. Therefore, Auggie advised that NCTO might be forced to oppose renewal of the AGOA third country fabric rule of origin. ACTIF brought forward the fact that TPP may conclude before AGOA renewal legislation begins to move forward, in which case NCTO just might avoid taking a position against renewing the AGOA third country fabric provision. On the other hand, we subsequently learned from our meeting with Chelsea Thomas that the Senate Finance Committee plans to hold a series of meetings on trade issues with stakeholders soon. If TPP is not concluded by then, NCTO may feel forced to oppose renewal of the third country fabric provision. In other discussions we deliberated whether the third country fabric provision serves as a disincentive to vertical integration in the African textile apparel industry. Auggie reported that some of his member companies had explored the possibility of investing in textile plants in Africa, but had decided against it because of the third country fabric provision. The meeting with NCTO was perhaps the least successful of the mission. There remains a serious risk that NCTO may feel compelled to oppose renewal of the AGOA third country fabric provision. Therefore, ACTIF needs to organize more meetings with NCTO to improving their relationship in light of the more aggressive position the new NCTO leadership has taken. 15

16 DAY 2 Tuesday, October 1 st 2013 C. U.S. Chamber of Commerce The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has become engaged in the Africa trade policy debate only in the past few years, thus has not previously taken a position on AGOA renewal. Given that its constituency is the U.S. private sector, the Chamber of Commerce would like to see changes to AGOA that encourage more U.S. exports to Africa. These changes would include requirements that African countries open their markets to U.S. goods and services and to see South Africa graduated from AGOA eligibility. This point is actually a stalking horse to try to force South Africa to negotiate an FTA with the U.S. The EU s FTA with South Africa is now fully implemented with the effect that EU goods and services now enjoy a competitive advantage in South Africa over U.S. products. The Chamber of Commerce is in support of only a short term renewal of AGOA and proposed a five year renewal, subject to a re evaluation of AGOA after two years. Although the meeting with the Chamber of Commerce was cordial, it was obvious that their policy priorities are quite different from ACTIF s goals. Additional outreach with the Chamber of Commerce was deemed necessary to prevent them from complicating and thereby delaying the AGOA renewal process. 16

17 DAY 3 & DAY 4 Wednesday, October 2 nd & Thursday, October 3 rd 2013 D. Think Tanks/NGOs Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Brookings Institute As with the Chamber of Commerce, prominent U.S. think tanks and NGOs are now for the first time becoming involved in the AGOA renewal debate. Hence, meetings were set up with the Brookings Institution and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), both of which have launched AGOA renewal studies. At Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the ACTIF delegation met with Mwangi Kimenyi, the director of Brookings Africa Growth Initiative and at CSIS, with Jennifer Cooke, the head of the CSIS Africa program. Both of these groups are exploring proposals to improve AGOA. Because the proposals may recommend changes to the basic structure of AGOA, as well as significant cost, such proposals may complicate and delay the renewal process. Thus, the main purpose of the meetings was to stress the importance of timely renewal of AGOA. Here, ACTIF took the position that we are not advocating any structural changes to AGOA (other than the extension of the third country fabric provision for the full term of the renewal). ACTIF echoed that it is not automatically opposed to proposal for changes to AGOA unless such proposals delay the renewal process. Hopefully, the meetings with Brookings and CSIS sensitized both entities to consider the potential damage that could be done if renewal of AGOA is delayed, as they consider proposals to improve AGOA. E. Follow Up. The lobbyist encouraged ACTIF to maintain the momentum created by the Washington mission to initiate the campaign to convince Congress to renew AGOA. He reminded ACTIF that the U.S. Trade Representative Froman had instructed the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to undertake a comprehensive analysis of AGOA and 17

18 develop recommendations for its renewal with results of this study being released in April The Lobbyist mentioned that there was a risk that all deliberations over AGOA renewal may be put on hold until the ITC recommendations are issued. If this were to happen, it would be impossible to achieve renewal of AGOA during 2014 since serious legislative activity basically comes to a halt by July of every election year i.e Putting off the AGOA renewal until 2015 would cause major job losses, the same way last year Congress delayed renewing the AGOA third country fabric provision until August Thus, ACTIF should insist on continuing to push for AGOA renewal to keep the issue active and on Congress agenda for The ITC will be holding a hearing as part of its AGOA study. Mr. Ryberg recommended that ACTIF should seriously consider scheduling a follow up advocacy mission to Washington to coincide with the ITC hearing and he would try to arrange to have an ACTIF witness testify before the ITC. Although the date of the ITC hearing has not yet been set, it is expected to be held sometime during January February He also suggested that another advocacy mission should be organized for the same time as the next AGOA Forum, which will be held in Washington, probably in June July 2014, i.e., shortly after the ITC study has been issued. This would be an opportunity to refocus Congress attention on the need for prompt action to extend AGOA before the end of Finally he reiterated that if the Congress will not have renewed AGOA before the end of 2014, then ACTIF should be prepared to redouble its efforts in early 2015 to achieve AGOA renewal as early as possible during the first half of 2015 to avoid the risk of massive job losses which would obviously occur if AGOA was not renewed before June