Africa Regional Media Hub

MODERATOR: Greetings to everyone from the U.S. Department of State’s Africa Regional Media Hub. I would like to welcome all of our callers who have dialed in from across Africa. Today, we are joined by USAID Assistant Administrator for Africa, Earl Gast and Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa, Florie Liser. They are speaking to us from Washington D.C. We will begin with remarks from Assistant Administrator Gast, followed by Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Liser, and then we will open it up to your questions. For those of you listening to the call in English, please press *1 on your phone to join the question queue. If you are using a speaker phone, you may need to pick up the handset before entering *1. For those of you listening to the call in French and Portuguese, you will need to submit your questions in English via email to afmediahub@state.gov. Today’s call is on the record and will last approximately 45 minutes. And with that, I’ll turn it over to Mr. Booth, followed by Ms. Liser...excuse me, to Mr. Gast, followed by Ms. Liser.

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: Well thank you, Camille, you had me confused there for a second. Let me say it is a pleasure being on the line with all of you, and I hope there is a good audience out there. I just, myself, returned from Africa late Sunday night, and it was a great trip. I went to the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Rwanda, and to South Africa. And really, the purpose of my visit was to follow up on some of the commitments that were made at the African Leaders Summit. And it was really a privilege, and a highlight of my career, and I’ve been in AID for twenty-four years, to be part of the African Leaders Summit. What initially started out as a three-day event wound up being about eight days, with more than eighty events, official and unofficial events, and really, just the magnitude of the presence of very senior African officials was really felt. And by that I mean, each delegation head of state brought five or six ministers, so we had three hundred or so of the most senior leaders on the continent here to talk about trade and investment, good governance, and also how to integrate youth into development. So it was a very, very exciting week or more. In fact, I was sitting on a panel with Minister Kigoda of Tanzania, and afterwards he said to me that this is like the African Development Bank meetings on steroids. And truly, it was an unbelievable event for those of us who work in government, but also for the people of the United States to become very familiar with the issues of Africa.

And really, the nature of the discussions was on how we can have more effective partnerships with African countries, as well as the private sector and civil society organizations, and trade and investment featured prominently throughout the discussions. In fact, in addition to the summit itself, we also had the AGOA forum, and there was really good discussion in that, and I know that Florie will go through it.

But just a couple of things, I had the privilege of sitting in on the discussion with the heads of states on investing in Africa, and clearly, all around the table, including our own President, talked about the importance of regional integration and working with the regional economic communities. And I am pleased to say that one initiative, a Presidential initiative, that was started by the President more than a year ago when he visited Africa, is Trade Africa, which focuses on the integration of the East African Community. We are also looking at trying to support, through our trade hubs, which we are now calling Trade and Investment Hubs, more effective partnerships so that we can get greater scale and greater utilization of AGOA benefits. And by that I mean, whereas ten years ago we were working with individual African firms to export to the U.S., we are now looking at developing partnerships with not only African firms, but also associations. And let me just tell you that when the President announced during the summit the creation of Trade and Investment Hubs, the first one being in East Africa, and we are really pleased to be launching that today, an example of that is getting a partner, a U.S. partner, looking at sourcing from Africa.

And so, as many of you know, the cost factors associated with China’s production have begun to increase, so labor costs are increasing in China, which makes Africa a much more lucrative partner in terms of providing labor and manufacturing. So PVH, which is the second largest American apparel company, is looking at moving some if its production facilities to Africa, and that is where the Trade and Investment Hub is supporting that effort in looking at opportunities for training African workers, training African companies to make sure that there is a reliable source of products meeting quality standards. So we are really excited about that, and we see other opportunities in other sectors.

In fact, we have pulled in all the senior leadership from our Trade and Investment Hubs on the continent, and many of you know that we have three on the continent; one in Nairobi, Kenya, and that is the Trade and Investment Hub there; in West Africa we have our trade and investment hub in Accra, Ghana; and then in Southern Africa we have the trade hub, which will eventually become a Trade and Investment Hub that is based in Botswana.

All the leadership is in town today. We are going to discuss the outcomes of the African Leaders Summit, and talk about ways of cooperating more effectively on the continent, and to help leverage and encourage investment on the part of U.S. companies in Africa, and help African companies take advantage of AGOA. So with that, let me turn it over to Florie. And we are very pleased to be here, and we will take all the questions that you have. Thank you, Camille.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Please go ahead, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative, Florie Liser.

ASSISTANT U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE LISER: Well, thank you Camille, thank you Earl, for inviting me to participate in this call today. It is a pleasure, as Earl said, to also be reporting on the historic U.S.- Africa Summit that took place in early August. And as Earl has noted, we also had an AGOA Forum ministerial meeting where all of the trade ministers and the ministers of commerce from the forty AGOA-eligible countries participated in a forum meeting that Ambassador Froman, the U.S. Trade Representative, hosted.

AGOA, as you know, is the cornerstone of the U.S. trade and investment relationship with Africa. And since AGOA was initially enacted, U.S. imports from Sub-Saharan African countries have grown more than threefold, to more than 26 billion dollars a year. And what a lot of people don’t know is that non-oil imports from Africa have increased almost four-fold. In addition, the stock of U.S.-Foreign direct investment in those countries has increased significantly, as well.

So throughout the world, we are seeing that trade and investment are powerful tools for creating economic growth, development, and jobs and opportunity, and this is also true with our partners in Africa. So we were delighted to, as a result, host the AGOA Forum Trade Ministerial on the margins of the U.S.-Africa Summit. And in the summit discussions, both the U.S. President Obama as well as the African heads of states, recognized the importance of the prompt, long-term renewal of an enhanced AGOA, and they pledged to work together to increase its utilization by African countries.

Many of you probably know that AGOA is currently slated to expire at the end of September 2015, so we are working very closely with the U.S. Congress on securing a timely and seamless renewal of the program.

Africa and the world trade system, and relationships are different in 2014 than they were in 2000 when AGOA was first passed, so the U.S. administration has made a number of proposals to modernize AGOA. And so we are looking at things like, perhaps, increasing the product coverage, simplifying the Rules of Origin, and also looking at some of the eligibility criteria and the review process to make some changes there. But we know that simply extending and updating AGOA duty-free access for Africans to the U.S. market, while important, we know that in order to unlock AGOA’s true potential, we need to more than focus on tariff preferences. And so that is why, in our view, AGOA has to be linked to a broader comprehensive trade and investment strategy, one that helps the Africans to build the capacity to trade regionally, as well as globally.

And that is why the work of the three regional trade hubs that Earl mentioned is so important, and also why today’s launching of the East Africa Trade and Investment Hub is so critical. This trade capacity building is also something that was recognized as important by President Obama, and so during the Summit, he issued a Presidential Memorandum on establishing a comprehensive approach to expanding Africa’s capacity for trade and investment, and we now have what we call an interagency, or multi-ministerial, steering group that is looking at developing recommendations on how to do that. 

The East Africa Trade and Investment Hub launch today is an important part of that comprehensive strategy, and it’s also something that is helping us to advance the President’s Trade Africa initiative, which Earl talked about.

But let me just finish by saying that beyond our government to government engagement, the U.S. government, with African government leaders, Ministers of Trade, know that ultimately it is the private sector, the U.S. and African private sectors, that will determine the nature and the future of the U.S. Africa Trade and Investment relationship. So we are pleased that some of the initiatives that Earl mentioned, like the PVH one, as well as many others, will help support the work that we in the government are doing to enhance the U.S. Africa Trade Investment relationship. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thank you, Mr. Gast and Ms. Liser. We will now begin the question and answer portion of today’s call. For those asking questions on the English line, we ask that you first state your name and affiliation, and limit yourself to one question only. I will start with a question that was pre-submitted by African Business Magazine. The question is, the U.S.-African Leaders Summit was overshadowed by the fear of Ebola in West Africa. Will American investors still be willing to come and invest in Africa now that Ebola is widespread?

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: Thanks, Camille, this is Earl. Florie, I don’t know if you want to take this, or if you would like me to take it?

ASSISTANT U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE LISER: No, I think you should.

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: So obviously, our President is very seized with this issue, and yesterday made a major announcement of additional support to get the Ebola crisis in hand. It is a global threat, a potential global threat, and so therefore he has committed not only the civilian agencies to respond to the threat, but also the Department of Defense, which has huge capabilities, enormous capabilities, in terms of logistics and immediate response capacity. So the idea is, with additional response, hopefully over the coming months we will be able to get the Ebola crisis in hand.

But to answer your question specifically, Africa is a huge continent, and I know that many of you have heard that over and over again, but the distance from Monrovia to Nairobi is about the same as from Seattle, Washington, to Miami, Florida. So the distance is huge. It doesn’t mean that the threat can’t, or won’t, move out of West Africa, but to date it has been contained, largely in the three countries that are directly affected. So I think people are concerned about Ebola, and certainly in the three countries where it exists it will have...it is having an effect on the economies, and that is something we are committed to the governments in trying to immediately respond and shore up their economies after Ebola has been contained, or even while it is in the process of being contained. So investment continues in Africa. I don’t see it having an immediate effect on investment.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Our next question goes to a caller from the listening party at the U.S. Embassy in Ghana. Operator, could you please open their line?

MEDIA: Good morning, my name is Ann and speaking from Accra, Ghana. We just heard that the proposal to modify the criteria to enhance trade relations into West Africa, precisely Accra, has been done. How far can we say that these modifications have improved relationships between trade businesses in Accra and the U.S., specifically?

ASSISTANT U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE LISER: Well, I’m not sure if this is what you are referring to, but we did in fact sign, during the Leaders Summit, a new U.S.-ECOWAS, Economic Community of West African States, Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, and we see that new agreement as an opportunity to help us increase our dialogue on trade and investments with Ghana and the other ECOWAS countries.

We also have a separate Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with Ghana, and my boss, Ambassador Froman, the U.S. Trade Representative, we had the opportunity to meet with President Mahama as well as your Minister of Trade while they were here in the U.S. during the Summit and had an opportunity to discuss a range of issues that we think will help to enhance the U.S.-Ghana relationship. For example, we talked a bit about the possibility of negotiating a bilateral investment treaty between the United States and Ghana. So again, I am not sure if that is the particular criteria that you were talking about, but we are excited, both about enhancing the relationship specifically with Ghana, as well as supporting regional integration in the West Africa region through our new U.S. ECOWAS Trade and Investment Framework Agreement.

MEDIA: Thank you very much. I think I am satisfied with that. 

MODERATOR: Thank you. Our next question was pre-submitted by a journalist at the listening party at the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa. This is a two-part question. Does USAID have specific programs to support young Africans wanting to create companies in Africa, and why hasn’t the United States allowed the DRC to come back into AGOA? Our two speakers may want to rotate on answering that question.

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: Great, so Florie, why don’t you take the second question and I will take the first one?

ASSISTANT U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE LISER: Sure.

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: Go ahead.

ASSISTANT U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE LISER: Did you want me to start with that one?

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: Start off, if you don’t mind?

ASSISTANT U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE LISER: Well yes, so thank you. First of all, let me just say in the context of the DRC not being eligible for AGOA, we always want our partners to know that our ultimate goal is to have as many of the forty-nine Sub-Saharan African countries eligible for AGOA. Currently, there are forty-one that are eligible, and we are working very hard with some of the non-eligible countries to help them address the issues that we have that make them ineligible.

In terms of the DRC, the issues that led to their being ineligible for AGOA were largely focused on human rights issues and concerns, serious concerns that the United States has about human rights and rule of law in the DRC. We are aware that efforts are being made to address those concerns, and we took the opportunity of the presence of the Trade Minister, the DRC Trade Minister, in the U.S. during the AGOA Forum, to sit down and meet with them and discuss some of the progress that has been made, but also some of the areas where we think there has to be continued movement by the DRC so that they can become eligible.

Let me just end by saying that every year, beginning in the fall, and we just started the process, we have an AGOA eligibility review process where we look at all the countries, not just those that are eligible, but also those that are ineligible, to ensure that they all meet the criteria. Those who are not eligible, who now meet the criteria, we would then make a recommendation to President Obama for them to become eligible. In the cases where they remain ineligible, we continue to work with them through the State Department and engagement with them across the board to help them address those issues.

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: Great, Florie, and let me respond to your first question which was, does AID have programs specifically targeting young business leaders and supporting them? Let me start off by saying, we do. And unfortunately, it hasn’t been done in a comprehensive way, or hadn’t been done in a comprehensive way. That, I mean, in individual countries we had programs focused on youth and young entrepreneurs. One example is the “Yes, Youth Can” initiative that we started off in Kenya, where we have mobilized more than a million youth to be involved in development. But through the Young African Leaders Initiative, and this was launched by President Obama last year, and at the YALI Summit in July, which took place just before the African Leader’s Summit, the President announced the creation of Regional Leadership Centers. And there are initially going to be four on the continent, one in South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Dakar, Senegal; and Accra, Ghana, to help engage with youth on the continent in a number of areas to include business and entrepreneurship.

I was just, as you heard at the beginning, I was just in South Africa. We are starting a partnership with Unisa, the University of South Africa, a large, well-regarded university with more than three hundred and fifty thousand students that it has on its roll, and we had with us during that session, some of the private sector partners who are going to work together in creating a Regional Leadership Center. They include Microsoft, Cisco, McKenzie, the Innovation Lab Group. And that is going to be at their Graduate School of Business, and the focus will be on, how do we engage, and what activities can we have to support young entrepreneurs? And so we are really excited about that. It is in its infancy. We think, in the next thirty to forty-five days, we will have an announcement of the Leadership Center and how youth across the continent can engage. Even though it is located in, or will be located in South Africa, it is not for South Africans alone. It is for everyone on the continent, but primarily those in Southern Africa.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much. I would like to remind all of the callers, if you have a question, please press *1 on your telephone. We will next take a question from the listening party at the U.S. Embassy in Kenya. Operator, please open the line for Nairobi, Kenya?

MEDIA: My name is Zachariah (inaudible) from Radio Bakulan. My question is, AID agencies have recently warned of new droughts in Somalia, in fact there are reports of people who have died from starvation in parts of the southern region in the country. How is the U.S. government going to help the Somali government to avoid relapse into the condition of the 2011 catastrophe?

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: So, Camille, I’m sorry, would you mind please repeating the question? It came in broken over here, and we understood it was about Somalia?

MODERATOR: Sure. For our questioner, please correct me if I have misunderstood this, but I heard your question to be, does the U.S. Government have some programs or plans to help Somalia avoid relapse into its prior condition?

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: Our administrator traveled to Somalia a little bit more than a year ago, May of 2013, and had very good discussions with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud. And during that visit he committed to tripling the amount of aid going into Somalia to help on the development side; to build the capacity of government, but also to work with the communities that have recently been liberated from Al-Shabaab. So our funding has more than tripled on the development side. At the same time, we are committed to provide assistance to Somalia in the amounts that we have done in the past on the humanitarian side. And so, yes, we are very mindful of some of the drought conditions, but our commitment to the people of Somalia isn’t waning.

MODERATOR: Thank you. We have another question. This question is going to be from Reuters East Africa. Operator, could you please open the line for Reuters?

MEDIA: Yes, hi, this is Edith Honan in Nairobi. I wonder if you could talk a little bit more about the East Africa Trade and Investment Hub, what, you know, what actually is going to go on there, and if you could talk about any concrete activities that will facilitate trade?

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: Hi, Edith, this is Earl, we will start off here. As I mentioned at the beginning, we have all of our leadership from the trade hubs in Washington this week for meetings, and so I am very fortunate to have, sitting across from me Matt Rees, who is the [USAID] Coordinator for the Trade Africa Initiative, and the Trade and Investment Hub in East Africa. Matt?

COORDINATOR FOR TRADE AFRICA INITIATIVE REES: Yes, good morning. I think that is a key question, of how we are going to build on the important trade hub work of the past, and under the new Trade Africa Initiative working with the Trade and Investment Hub to bring something new to the relationship. Some key variances from how we have been doing business in the past and providing technical assistance is the commitment to the shared East African Community goals.

The entire premise of the Hub is based on deepening regional integration, and working with both the public and private sector strategies to take advantage of the partner states’ commitments to deepening regional integration. How this comes across in terms of economic investment is perhaps a perfect example of that, actually, is President Kenyatta’s example of his commitment to the Charter for Port Reform of Mombasa, in partnering with TradeMark East Africa, providing a package of assistance that enables the government of Kenya to commit to reducing the time and cost of moving goods across the Northern Corridor from eighteen to five days over the next three years. This, for the private sector, sends a key message for both investment and setting an environment that enables trade, and provides assurances to the private sector that their goods can come and go out of East Africa with a positive assurance of time.

Another key aspect that we are working with is, as Administrator Gast touched on earlier, is working in partnership with select U.S. firms that have an obvious interest in particular sectors, but also provide opportunities for partnerships between East African and U.S. firms. Recently, the Foreign Commercial Service hosted a visit, a trade visit, from the U.S. Association of Packaging and Manufacturers. Key partners like Heinz were out for the first time looking at how partnership and transfer of expertise and technologies through various sharing agreements can bring value addition to, for example, this key horticultural value chain, in East Africa. So rather than exporting raw materials, looking at doing value addition in East Africa in partnership with U.S. firms. Those are just a couple of examples.

MODERATOR: Thank you. The next question was submitted in advance from Dalsan Radio in Nairobi, Kenya. How can the U.S. government ensure that the outcome of the Summit bears fruit and does not remain on paper only? So I think either of our speakers, if you would like to address that, please do so.

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: So, Florie, maybe I can start. So one of the main discussion points in the session that dealt with economic growth and trade and investment, obviously, the President talked about the importance of new AGOA and improved AGOA legislation as being a cornerstone of our strategy for economic growth in Africa, and certainly the Trade and Investment Hubs support that. But another initiative that was talked about, because it has, in just one year, has shown to be an effective model of development and investment taking place, and that is Power Africa. Now, Power Africa is not just about a U.S. government investment, it is using U.S. Government investment to mitigate risk on the part of the private sector. The President, during the Summit, announced that more than 26 billion dollars had been committed on the part of the private sector in support of energy projects on the continent.

So what that means is that we have a partnership among governments, host governments, to create the conditions necessary for private investment to take place. The donor community, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and USAID, working in concert to make sure that our investments are catalytic, and that we support the governments in improving the investment climate, and third, it is the private sector actually following through on their investment.

So we have been having meetings regularly at key events to make sure that the commitments that we are all making, whether it’s the government’s own policy reforms, whether it is the donors that come in with timely disbursements of assistance, or the private sector, that those...that all are taking place at the agreed time. So it is an accountability structure.

What the President talked about at the Summit was taking those lessons learned and applying those to other sectors. And so we are in the process of creating what we are calling the African Private Capital Group, which will*support investments in sectors other than energy, and we're building accountability into that as well.

MODERATOR: Hello...hello? I think we have lost Mr. Gast.

ASSISTANT U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE LISER: Can you hear me?

MODERATOR: Yes, I can. Okay, so his line seems to have dropped, so we will dial him back in. While we are doing that, if you would go ahead and respond, that would be great. Thank you.

ASSISTANT U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE LISER: Let me add a few things. Earl can finish his thought in terms of some of the new areas that we are going into, but I did want to mention just a couple of things that I thought will bear significant fruit coming out of the Summit. So obviously, from the perspective of my agency, working to extend AGOA will be one important area, I have already talked about that. But many of the heads of state and senior officials and ministers who came from Africa, as well as business people, said that one of the highlights for them was this first ever U.S. Africa Business Forum that was held the day before the heads of states met together with President Obama.

And at that business forum, the Department of Commerce brought U.S. CEOs from companies all across the country to come and meet with heads of states, and also African CEOs, to discuss the business environment in Africa, to talk about what were the ways that they could partner in various sectors. And my understanding is that, coming out of the business forum, there were commitments and joint ventures totaling something like 33 billion dollars that were negotiated during the summit.

So the key is that, as I was saying earlier, business is the driver for economic growth. The Government, we can’t do it. We can set the right environment, a business-friendly environment, but after that it is really up to business. So, to me, that was one of the most exciting things that happened was, really connecting at the very highest levels, our businesses with African businesses, with heads of states, and there will be a lot of follow up on that through our Doing Business in Africa Campaign. There are going to be, I think, seven trade missions that the U.S. Department of Commerce will be leading over the course of the next eighteen months to two years. A number of them are already coming together. And, you know, a number of U.S. agencies are also having reverse trade missions, etcetera. So we feel very excited about the work that is taking place that is going to lead to greater trade and investment between the U.S. and the African countries that participated in this Summit.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Our next question comes from the listening party at the U.S. Embassy in Ghana. Operator, could you please open the line for them? Keep in mind for our questioner that we seem to have...the line for Mr. Gast has been dropped, so if you could please direct your questions to Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Liser? Thank you.

MEDIA: Thank you for the opportunity. My name is Edmund Smith Asante of the Daily Graphic in Ghana. In a nutshell, what would you say were the major breakthroughs of the Summit, and how are they going to improve trade relations between the U.S. and Africa?

ASSISTANT U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE LISER: Well I think I have already touched on some of them. The leaders had a very robust discussion of trade and investment as a key tool, or engine, for economic growth, not just in Africa, but in the U.S., as well. So the two-way trade and investment relationship is something that they talked about. They agreed on a number of things. One of them, as I said earlier, was on the importance of a timely and seamless renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. They talked about the need for trade capacity building for Africa in order for them to really be more productive and competitive participants, not only in global trade, sending their products to the United States, Europe, and other places around the world, but even for regional trade, where Africans can supply more of their products to each other. They talked about the importance of value-added production, so that Africa is not stuck at, sort of, the bottom of the global value chain, always the ones supplying the raw materials or commodities, and then other countries taking Africa’s raw commodities and benefitting from the jobs and investment that go with processing and value addition.

They also talked about the need for industrialization in Africa, and how we could work together in that area. And as I just said, there were a number of business-related commitments that were made, you know, from business to business in the power sector, housing. There were a range of commitments in those areas. So again, I think that there were excellent outcomes on the trade and investment side, and then of course, on peace and security, on investing in the youth and the future of Africa, those were other areas where, of course, there were a whole range of outcomes.

There is a Chairman’s Report out of the Summit, which really gives a good summary of what happened in each of the key areas. And if you go to the U.S. White House website, you can find that document there.

MODERATOR: Thank you. I understand that we have Earl Gast on the line again, is that correct?

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: Hi, Camille. Yes, we are back on.

MODERATOR: Good. Okay, we have a question now from a journalist with Somali Current. Operator, could you please open the line for the questioner?

MEDIA: Yes, this is Mohamad Abdurahman from Somali Current. My question is, as you know, the federal government of Somalia is not in control of the entire country. So I want to know if there are any plans for U.S. investment in Somalia. Especially, we know that oil has been found in Somalia back in the 1980, so now the Ministry of Oil in Somalia told the media that they spoke with American oil companies. Do you think this is a fine time to invest in Somalia oil by U.S. oil companies?

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: So let me start off by saying that we in the government don’t make decisions for the private sector. If the conditions are right for the private sector, they will invest. Obviously, depending on the type of resource that the private sector will invest in, some are more willing to take risks than others, and we have seen that in other conflict-ridden countries, to include Afghanistan. So I am not too familiar with the discussions that the Ministry of Oil has had with U.S. companies, but it is a private sector decision.

MODERATOR: Thank you. We have time for one last question. This question is from the listening party at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Operator, please open the line.

MEDIA: Hello, my name is Evelyn from the Business Daily in Kenya. I wanted to ask about the EAC Hub that you are forming in Kenya, in Nairobi. East Africa integration has experienced a lot of challenges when it comes to negotiation and talks, especially with taxation, the VAT. How is the U.S. government going to ensure that it does not meet the same challenges when implementing what you are launching today?

MODERATOR: Is either of our speakers able to address that question?

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: Sure, Camille. I’m sorry, would you mind echoing that question one last time?

MODERATOR: Could you repeat, please, the question?

MEDIA: Thank you. East Africa integration has experienced challenges when it comes to meeting some of these agendas, especially on taxation. How is the U.S. Government going to handle these challenges when it starts operation with its Trade and Investment Hub in Nairobi?

MODERATOR: Were you able to hear the question?

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: I think so. And let me say that our approach in supporting Trade Africa, which again, is the integration of the East African Community, as my colleague Matt Rees has mentioned, we actually do it through two primary means. One is the Trade and Investment Hub, which is certainly helping out on the integration side, but really, the focus is becoming more on attracting investment into East Africa and helping East African companies take advantage of AGOA preferences.

The second means is by supporting the EAC in developing policies and procedures, to include taxation services, customs integration, and that is being primarily done through a multilateral effort, which we call TradeMark East Africa. So the U.S., USAID, the U.S. government, is one of several donors. We play an active role in that project. And in addition to supporting the policies at the EAC level, TradeMark East Africa has constituent offices in each of the five EAC countries to help on its implementation.

We sort of benchmark how each of the regional economic communities are doing vis-à-vis one another. One of the things that we had supported and were very proud of, with support of the IFC and the EAC, is the Common Market Scorecard. And what that does is, it shows how each of the countries is meeting its commitments under the EAC integration agenda, as well as how open it is to global trade. And so that, we think, is a very good means of discussing specific policy weaknesses that are a part of either the bilateral effort, or the EAC effort.

So you’re right, and you mention service taxation being one area that needs to be focused on. Another is services and labor movement. But the EAC has made very important strides on coming up with a common customs agenda, and that is something that we are continuing to support.

COORDINATOR FOR TRADE AFRICA INITIATIVE REES: Perhaps I would add that under the new East Africa Trade and Investment Hub, a key component of it is working with the Ministries of East African communities to provide technical assistance in taking up some of their commitments to honor and implement policies that they have agreed to at the EAC.

So, for example, should a VAT issue, or a Rules of Origin issue arise, contradictory to what they have agreed to under the Single Customs Territory, then they can call on USAID and/or TradeMark for technical assistance under the auspices of removal of non-tariff and technical barriers to trade.

 MODERATOR: Thank you. Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Liser, did you have any final comments you want to make before I close the call?

ASSISTANT U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE LISER: No, I would just say though that, you know, we appreciate the opportunity to connect to the media there. And I just want to say that, you know, obviously trade and investment are a critical part of our relationship with Africa, the U.S. relationship with Africa. We have a lot of different initiatives that we are pushing forward to try to maximize that relationship and to take advantage of the many and growing opportunities in Africa for our businesses here. And we look forward, you know, over the next year and beyond in following up from the Summit, and making sure that it is not just a one-time event but that, you know, there are concrete results and outcomes that we pursue as a result of the Summit.

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: Camille, I’m sorry, I know we are over time, but could I just make a few final comments?

MODERATOR: Absolutely.

ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR GAST: Great. Well let me tell you, I had a chance to observe the discussion on trade and investment among the heads of states with our President, and the consensus around the table was, what differentiated this summit from other summits, whether it’s the China Summit, or it’s the Japanese Summit, or the European Summit, is the fact that we had great opportunities for heads of states and various ministers to engage and discuss specific investment opportunities with our CEOs, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, throughout the summit. That was very important. And so we are very excited about supporting those opportunities, and do know that trade and investment is a major effort that we are all supporting in the U.S. government with the private sector companies. It is an exciting time, and I would encourage all of the media to engage with our embassies, our USAID missions, our commercial representatives to talk about specific opportunities. 

MODERATOR: Thank you very much. That concludes today’s call. I want to thank our speakers for joining us, and also to thank all our callers for participating. If you have any questions about today’s call, please contact the Africa Regional Media Hub at afmediahub@state.gov. Thank you.

Related Resources

Click here for the English audio of the telephonic media briefing

Click here for the French audio of the telephonic media briefing

Click here for the Portuguese audio of the telephonic media briefing