Kufuor: Empower Africa ....

... with the capacity to meet US market requirements
Accra, July 18, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Wednesday called on the United States Government to help empower Africa with the capacity to produce goods that would meet the technical requirements of the American market.

As much as the continent appreciated the duty-free and quota-free trade under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the region must be technically supported to have its goods sell on the US market. It was through this that the good intentions of AGOA could be sustained into the future, President Kufuor said when Ms. Susan Schwab, the US Trade Representative, paid a courtesy call on him at the Castle, Osu.

She is in the country at the head of the US delegation attending the Sixth AGOA Forum in Accra.

The three-day Forum being attended by Trade Ministers from the 39 AGOA eligible countries in sub-Saharan Africa, representatives of the private sector and civil society groups is discussing ways of enhancing Africa-US trade.

President Kufuor described AGOA as a landmark legislative initiative.

Ms Schwab said the size of the US delegation, drawn from 13 federal agencies showed her country's determination to improve, deepen and strengthen its trade relations with Ghana and other AGOA qualified countries in sub-Saharan Africa.