The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act and its Rules of Origin : Generosity Undermined?

Mattoo, Aaditya ; Roy, Devesh ; Subramanian, Arvind

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGRICULTURAL MARKETS;    AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS;    AGRICULTURE;    APPAREL;    APPAREL EXPORTS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2908
RP-ID  :  WPS2908

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The African Growth and Opportunity Act(AGOA), signed into American law on May 18, 2000, is a majorplank of U.S. initiatives toward the African continent. TheAct aims broadly at improving economic policymaking inAfrica, enabling countries to embrace globalization, andsecuring durable political and economic stability. As anincentive for Africa to adopt the necessary policy reform,AGOA offers increased preferential access for Africanexports to the United States. This paper describes theprovisions of AGOA and assesses its quantitative impact onAfrican exports, particularly in the apparel sector. Itsmain conclusions are: 1) AGOA will provide realopportunities to Africa. Even on conservative estimatesabout Africa's supply response, Africa's non-oilexports could be increased by about 8-11 percent. 2)However, the medium-term gains could have been much greaterif AGOA had not imposed certain conditions and not excludedcertain items from its coverage. The most importantcondition is the stringent rule-of-origin, that is, therequirement that exporters source certain inputs from withinAfrica or the United States. Estimates suggest that theabsence of these conditions would have magnified the impactnearly five-fold, resulting in an overall increase innon-oil exports of US$0.54 billion compared with theUS$100-US$140 million increase that is expected in thepresence of these restrictions. These restrictions,particularly on apparel, will come at a particularlyinopportune time, as Africa will be exposed to competitionfrom other developing countries when the quotas maintainedon the latters' exports under the Multi-FiberArrangement (MFA) are eliminated. Africa's apparelexports will be lower by over 30 percent with thedismantling of the MFA. If, on the other hand, AGOA hadprovided unrestricted access, the negative impact of thedismantling could be nearly fully offset.