USAID VEGA Ethiopia AGOA+, the only bilateral AGOA trade program in Africa, announced that Ethiopia has been making steady gains in its efforts to break into the U.S market. 

The AGOA+ project has been working directly with local businesses to increase Ethiopia’s exports to the United States through the AGOA and has seen significant progress so far.

Since the project’s inauguration two years ago, Ethiopian exports under AGOA/General System of Preference (GSP) have increased by almost 100 percent that is to 89 million USD in 2007, much higher than the average national exports growth rate over the past five years. 

AGOA is a U.S government initiative that allows for a duty free and quota free access to the U.S market for over 6,000 items produced in selected African countries including Ethiopia.  The AGOA+ project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

“The U.S. market, while very competitive and demanding, is also the largest in the world,” the US embassy in Addis Ababa quoted Addis Alemayehu, Director of the AGOA+ project as saying.

The prospects are very promising.  Existing Ethiopian factories are starting to show signs of becoming globally competitive, while fresh new investments with an eye to the U.S. market have also increased in the key sectors of key textile, garments and leather industries. 

USAID’s VEGA Ethiopia AGOA+ project in turn has been making progress in building the image of Ethiopia as a location for quality exportable products.

Already planning ahead, the AGOA+ project has forged a close partnership with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the International Labor Organization (ILO) office in Ethiopia to help increase Ethiopia’s share of garment and apparel exports to the US.

USAID VEGA Ethiopia AGOA+ was initiated in January 2005 and has made tremendous progress in contributing to the growth of exports from Ethiopia to the U.S. market.  

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