Premium
The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act and its Rules of Origin: Generosity Undermined?
Author(s) -
Mattoo Aaditya,
Roy Devesh,
Subramanian Arvind
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
world economy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.594
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1467-9701
pISSN - 0378-5920
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9701.00550
Subject(s) - generosity , rules of origin , scope (computer science) , clothing , market access , international economics , duty , international trade , economics , business , development economics , political science , law , free trade , geography , agriculture , archaeology , computer science , programming language
This paper describes the United States recently enacted Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and assesses its quantitative impact on African exports. The AGOA expands the scope of preferential access of Africa's exports to the United States in key areas such as clothing. However, its medium‐term benefits – estimated at about US$100‐$140 million, an 8−11 per cent addition to current non‐oil exports – would have been nearly five times greater (US$540 million) if no restrictive conditions had been imposed on the terms of market access. The most important of these conditions are the rules of origin with which African exporters of clothing must comply to benefit from duty‐free access.