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Condoleezza for ACCRA
By Kweku Asare, ACCRA
Accra, July 7, Ghanadot – Ghanadot sources in the US Embassy
in Accra on Friday said Secretary of State, Condoleezza
Rice, is expected to make her first trip to Ghana.
She is scheduled to attend a regional forum of the about 40
countries from sub-Saharan Africa who are receiving trade
benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)
approved by the U.S. Congress in 2000.
According to a draft itinerary, Ms Rice is scheduled to
visit Israel and the West Bank from July 16 to 20, 2007 in a
trip that will make a stop in Ghana, for talks with Ghanaian
government officials including President John Agyekum Kufuor
at the Osu Castle on African trade issues and the AGOA
itself and how to streamline its operations.
State Department and Administration officials say the
measure, which lowered U.S. trade barriers to African goods,
has helped to more than double the annual volume of American
trade with the region and create thousands of jobs in
Africa.
However, local authorities’ implementation of the trade
agreement has been plagued by political considerations in
the companies that have been listed as beneficiaries.
Industry participants are however, not oblivious of the
total benefits anyway and would use the opportunity to bring
attention to more transparency in how companies are listed
to be under the AGOA programme.
Kweku Asare, ACCRA, July 7, 2007 Ghanadot.com
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