More Infrastructure Partnerships Critical to US-Africa Trade, Says Froman
Poor infrastructure and inefficient trade facilitation are continuing to hamper the U.S. trade relationship with sub-Saharan African and those “supply-side constraints” are a far bigger challenge than remaining tariffs, said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)…
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CEO Dana Hyde in an Aug. 23 op-ed. The ten-year renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act in June is a critical move to maintain strong trade relations between the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa region, but more U.S. partnership in infrastructure development will greatly benefit both African and U.S. exporters, said the op-ed, which appeared in Project Syndicate (here). “Making the most of AGOA will also require improvement in the infrastructure – physical and institutional – necessary for promoting investment and facilitating trade,” said Froman and Hyde. “The issues that need to be addressed include the lack of reliable, affordable electricity, high transportation costs, and weak and inefficient trade-related facilities.” The op-ed pushed Congress to give MCC “authority to pursue regional investments” in order to “help increase economic activity and promote regional integration.”