2003 African Growth And Opportunity Act ( AGOA) Forum: Port Louis, Mauritius -- January 13-17, 2003

1:05 P.M. EST

For example, I mean, this is tariff-free entry, and the tariffs on textile products vary product by product. But it means that for any particular product an African producer is exporting under AGOA, they would have an edge over some of the larger producers. Take China for example. Everyone realizes that China is a very, very big producer. Even if textile quotas come off as scheduled at the end of 2004, a producer in Africa would have the benefit under AGOA of having preferential access to the US market.

QUESTION: Very quickly, can I take from that, then, the United States or the Bush administration is not committed to lifting -- to extending quotas?

UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: I think the way I would characterize it is that I have not seen from my vantage point at the State Department any explicit proposal in the WTO for revisiting that issue. And so the question of the position of our administration is one that it hasn't been broached, it hasn't been raised. If it were broached in any explicit way, we would have to take a look at it and come to a conclusion. But it isn't that we're for or against; it's simply that the issue hasn't been raised.

QUESTION: Thank you, Paul. Jim Fisher-Thompson, Washington File.

Mr. Under Secretary, Mauritius has been described before as an economic success story of Sub-Saharan Africa. I believe it was one of the first countries that got its economic house in order and was eligible for the textile provisions of AGOA. Is it a model of success for other African countries? Could you comment on that?

And also, could you comment on the economic significance of the recent -- what's been described as successful democratic elections in Kenya?

UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: I think it will be up to African leaders and African people to choose their own models, but we have been heartened by the fact that there are a number of success stories in Africa. Mauritius has had some important success. We've been impressed with the things that Mozambique has been able to achieve in the decade since the end of civil war. Other countries all around the continent have had specific types of successes in specific areas, Mali in areas like agriculture and Uganda on education.

What impresses me is the fact that the African leaders and African nations, under initiatives like NEPAD, are taking a sense of sort of ownership over their own development, trying to learn from the successes of each other and to draw also, I'm sure, lessons from things that haven't worked out as well.

We want to reinforce all of the good things that are going on. That's one of the reasons why the President, for example, has come forward with the Millennium Challenge Account which is designed to provide additional assistance for countries that are undertaking very, very strong policies and showing strong commitment to good governance and to invest in their own people and creating a climate within the country that is friendly to homegrown entrepreneurship.

On Kenya, yeah, I think I'll say in passing that Kenya is the first African country I ever visited or lived in. I was a teacher in Kenya before I even joined the Foreign Service and so I have taken particular interest and I've been heartened by a rather successful election and we are looking forward to dealing with President Kibaki and his new government.

QUESTION: Cory Henry, Inside US Trade.

Mr. Under Secretary, I am wondering about the issue of food safety, if that at this -- during the AGOA forum if you're going to discuss the recent rejection of a number of U.S. food aid shipments because they had contained genetically modified organisms. I wonder if you're going to redouble your efforts there to convince countries that this food is, indeed, safe.

And I guess even beyond that, are you satisfied, is the administration satisfied with the European Commission's efforts to convince Africa that the GMO food they rejected is, indeed, scientifically sound and safe to eat?

UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: The issue of food aid is not on the agenda as such, but I think we're all cognizant of the fact that in going to Mauritius we are going to a region where there is a very grave humanitarian crisis underway, the region of Southern Africa. We are pleased that many of the countries that have been afflicted by this crisis, as well as countries in the Horn of Africa that have been afflicted by similar food security crises, recognize that the biotech maize and other biotech products that every American eats every day are safe and can make a contribution to alleviating this very serious humanitarian crisis.

If we have an opportunity, I'm sure we would want to take advantage of an opportunity to discuss further with some of the countries that still have questions about biotech products, because we do believe very strongly that it would be a shame to deprive one's population of this contribution to food security needs at a time of crisis.

The Commission of the European Union in a number of statements has made clear that their analysis within Europe, as well as their review of analyses conducted elsewhere, including the United States, convinces them that these products are as safe as their conventional counterparts. And I welcome the fact that Commissioner Byrne, for example, has put out statements to that effect.

In any case, we look ahead to the deepening crisis. We will want to work with all the parties, work with the Europeans to -- and with the Southern Africans and the countries in the Horn to make sure that there is an adequate collective response to this situation.

The difficult reality is that there is not an alternative. There is not sufficient European food aid that is being put on offer. There is not sufficient food within the region to allow us or others to go in and buy local food and just sort of rearrange the distribution patterns.

So we are going to have to come up with a solution that makes use of the food assistance that the United States has on offer, that gets the maximum contribution of food assistance from all of the potential donors, and where we make a maximum effort within the region to make sure that the food that is available gets to the people that need it.

And we're looking at this in a very serious, non-polemical fashion. We just want to get food to the people that need it and do so in the way that we can save the maximum number of lives.

QUESTION: Adu Asare, AfricaNewscast.com. This question is about food. At the business roundtable we talked about earlier, a lot of the questions and discussions came around specifying the prohibitions on the AGOA, meaning that the African countries were encouraged to look at food export in addition to textiles. But then on the African side, it's time you speak with them. They have a problem with the conditions that U.S. demands to make it possible for them to export food items here. Is that going to be talked about at Mauritius?

UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Well, we'll be -- we'll certainly be happy to talk about any issues that African trade ministers and finance ministers want to bring forward. The whole idea of the conference is to address any practical problems that there may be to expanding exports from beneficiary countries to the United States.

In the area -- and I should say 90 percent of the exports of Sub-Saharan African countries do enter the United States duty free. So there is a very good opportunity and there is, I think, scope for diversification. I think the issue that you're specifically referring to is the issue of sanitary and phytosanitary standards. And this is something that I believe can be tackled through the sort of capacity-building programs that you and I were discussing earlier in the press conference.

I think everyone in the room would understand that agencies like the Animal-Plant Health Inspection Service at the US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration have an important responsibility to protect the safety of American consumers and the safety of American agricultural crops from infestations or diseases and that sort. And they conduct their work in a scientific and rigorous way.

So the issue isn't to change that, but the issue is to make sure that countries that may be new to the marketplace and may be trying to export food products get the help they need to figure out how to access assistance, how to make sure that their products are tested and get them certified or approved so they can be brought into the market. And to the extent that we hear about specific types of issues or problems that countries have had, we're more than happy to try to address them.

QUESTION: Mr. Under Secretary, beside the certification process which is related to visa, what do you see as the potential problem which African countries have been encountering in implementing AGOA, and how do you plan to tackle them?

UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Well, one of the common comments that we get from African leaders, trade ministers, finance ministers, and business leaders is that there needs to be more productive capacity. In other words, this is an opportunity, but we need to have more productive capacity.

And there's at least two directions in which the conversation moves from there. One is that it's important to have more investment, both from within the country and foreign investment from outside of the country. And that's why one significant -- one day of the conference will be devoted to investment issues so that we can think together about the sorts of policy initiatives and other initiatives that could get more productive investment flowing into these countries to increase the productive capacity so that the countries have more to export.

A second part of the issue often revolves around infrastructure. You know, how do you have -- how can you strengthen the road and port system so that it's easier to get products to market? That can also be an investment issue because some of these infrastructure projects are susceptible to private sector finance.

Sometimes it may be a case of making sure that the development strategy worked out with the World Bank, for example, through the County Assistance Strategies, is aligned to the country's interest in taking advantage of new export opportunities out of -- under AGOA. I mean, it may mean that in some case the country would say, well look, we would give higher priority now to this road project or this port project because we have a very live opportunity to increase exports if we could move the product more easily.

So I think those are the two aspects of productive capacity that we often hear about and we look forward to addressing when we're in Mauritius.

QUESTION: What about civil society who (inaudible) from this AGOA process? In fact, many civil society organizations have complained that they're not involved, that labor unions in Swaziland, I guess, last month even called for Swaziland to be made not eligible for AGOA precisely because of their problems with government.

UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Well, at this particular meeting, and I probably should have highlighted that at the beginning, there really are two aspects to the meeting. One aspect is the government-to-government sessions which will be jointly led. For example, I’ll be leading a couple of sessions in tandem with leaders from Africa.

But the other part of the forum will be a forum that will include an NGO forum, and it will include private sector -- a private sector business forum that includes a trade exhibition. So we are building NGO participation into this particular forum.

Now, the broader point that I guess I would make is that as we try to recast the way that we think about development, and hopefully the rest of the world thinks about development, we are putting great emphasis on participatory structures within countries.

I mentioned in passing earlier the President's initiative on the Millennium Challenge Account and the fact that we will put -- in making decisions about participation in that program, the President has directed that we put a premium on countries that are governing justly, investing in their own people and in having entrepreneurial climates.

But beyond that, as we further refined our thinking about how to actually make this program work, one of the things that all of us in the administration have been stressing is the importance of having -- working with countries that have participatory systems for developing their own development strategies and for developing any projects or programs that they might want to work with us on under the Millennium Challenge Account.

So we are going to be a force. We are a force. We will, I think, be an even greater force for participatory approaches that include outreach to civil society in the private business community.

QUESTION: Yes, on the issue related to civil society in democracy, I would like to know how do you assess Guinea, which is also a member of this AGOA, in the light of the November 9, 2001, referendum which guarantees President Lansana Conte presidency life in power.

UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: I make it a practice at press conferences like this that are on Africa-wide issues not to take up specific countries or specific issues involving specific countries.

What I will say is this, though. When we started thinking about how to carry out the President's vision that the Millennium Challenge Account should be something that works with countries that are committed to governing justly, we did a comprehensive search of all of the objective indicators that scholars and researchers have tried to develop to help inform judgments about which countries were respecting rule of law, were respecting human rights, were conducting government in a democratic way with proper electoral procedures.

And so the intention as we go forward with the Millennium Challenge Account is to really use those sorts of indicators as a north star, as a guide, to help us to make decisions about who should participate. We're very serious about the governance issue and we're very serious about ensuring that as we implement things like the Millennium Challenge Account that we're working with countries that have a genuine commitment to good governance and the democratic process.

QUESTION: Mr. Under Secretary -- sorry, Cory Henry, Inside US Trade -- I think so far it seems like your description of the AGOA, you know, the goals of the AGOA Summit, or Forum, you know, seem to reflect the Bush administration's commitment to Africa in terms of trade investment. But I'm wondering out of this particular forum, you know, if there's any concrete developments that you're going to point as hoping to come out of the forum.

I mean, for example, would we might hear a formal announcement on the launch on the Southern Africa Customs Union FTA with the U.S. or, you know, something to that effect, something more concrete than just sort of a show of solidarity with Sub-Saharan Africa?

UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: I'm going to leave it to Ambassador Zoellick to make any announcements about launch dates for FTAs. That's really his prerogative, both as the President's Trade Representative and as the head of our delegation to this particular conference.

I will say that apart from that specific issue all of us who are going out expect that we will come back with some very specific actionable ideas for making AGOA work better. I mean, this is a forum in more than name only. This is a real opportunity to sit down with leaders from all over Sub-Saharan Africa who are involved in helping their countries take advantage of the opportunities. I'm sure we've heard about some of the issues countries are talking about now, issues of standards, issues of productive capacity. I fully expect to come back with a notebook full of ideas that were raised at the forum that we'll have to follow up on and that we can use in making AGOA even more successful.

I mean, one of the things that you heard even in the introduction to my remarks is that AGOA has not been static. There was a version of it that was passed during President Clinton's administration. It was improved in 2002. And we are committed to doing what is necessary to make sure that this is a program that meets its full potential. And if that means taking a look at some of the ways that we can help countries take advantage of it, if it means taking a look at some of the specific features, we're very open to doing that.

So I'm not going to disclose any bombshells here. If there are any, I'll leave them to Ambassador Zoellick to disclose. But I do want to leave you all with the understanding that we're going out with a genuine interest in having this be a consultative process.

QUESTION: Emad McKay with InterPress Service. I was wondering if you could please look inside for us what you just described for us right now of the U.S. commitment to Africa with the fact that President Bush has just canceled what would have been his first trip to Africa, and also with the farm bill which, according to many analysts that I have talked to, would deprive a lot of African farmers of even the possibility of exporting to the U.S. market, if not to other markets as well.

UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Okay, two points. One, the President regrets that he is not able to go to Africa this month, and I know the White House is actively looking for opportunities for him to reschedule his trip. As I said last year in a different context, the President of the United States can't always go to every meeting at any particular time, but the President's commitment to Africa is reflected both in the support for AGOA, the very large number of African leaders that he's met throughout his term and many of them in the first six months. I mean, if you look at the record, you'll see that he has had a very active diplomacy and has built some very, very strong relationships with African leaders during his two years in office.

On the farm bill, some of you probably already know what I'm about to say, but it is important to understand that the U.S. farm bill has not changed the fact that the overall level of subsidies practiced by the United States is far, far below those practiced in Europe and Japan, and that the farm bill did not move us outside of our WTO limits or commitments on agricultural subsidies, and, in fact, built into the farm bill was a circuit breaker that if we were to start moving outside of our WTO commitments, it would stop; it would stop the subsidies from being provided.

More important, however, than that is the fact that the United States has put on the table in Geneva in the WTO the most ambitious proposal that I have ever seen for eliminating export subsidies in agriculture; for harmonizing, and then in the later stage eliminating, domestic trade distorting subsidies; and for harmonizing at a very low level, and then eliminating, border measures, tariffs and quotas, with respect to agricultural products.

This is a proposal that is of great value to Africa. Many African leaders have already told me that they welcome this initiative. We would -- you know, I think we may have an opportunity on the margins of the conference to talk further about this. I would challenge anyone, any country that is interested in agricultural reform and more opportunities for African countries to export to developed country markets, to show me a country that's come up with any better proposal than the one that we've put forward.

I've got a speech at the State Department. I think I have time, if there's one last short question I can do it, otherwise I have to go.

QUESTION: Thanks. Cory Henry, Inside US Trade. Just to follow up on what you just said regarding discussions on the margins of the forum, so you think there's perhaps a likelihood that you may discuss with some African leaders the WTO agriculture negotiations and progress being made in Geneva?

UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Well, it's been my experience that when trade ministers get together, they talk about everything that's on their agenda. And so while I can't speak for Ambassador Zoellick, I feel relatively confident that there will be discussion on the margins not only of the benefits of AGOA and how to secure those benefits, but also about other ways to expand trade. And the Doha development agenda is one of the most important opportunities for African countries to expand their markets, for the very reason highlighted by the previous question.

In other words, it is in the WTO that one is going to find it possible to bring down these agricultural subsidies. It is something that African trade ministers should be concerned about and we think that the WTO is the right place to get the job done and we think that the U.S. proposal is a very good starting point for that discussion.

Thank you.