By Barrister Fabian Awhen
The African Growth and Opportunity Act was enacted by the United States Congress in the year 2000 to among other things liberalize trade between sub-Saharan African countries and the United States and Canada.
Primarily the act is to enable the African Countries to export several goods and open up a network of trade between the two blocs.
Some of the items of trade under the enactment include wearing apparel, leather works, and agricultural produce in whatever form. machinery including automobiles.
Indeed, over six thousand items are covered in the Trade Act.
The uniqueness of the Act is that these items are exported duty-free.
However, the African Growth and Opportunity Act provides some benchmark requirements, that the participating countries must meet to be eligible.
Such conditionalities are that the countries must have a market-driven economy, they must also ensure the reduction of corruption in the polity, provide an enabling trade environment to enlist the confidence of investors, and above all they must put in place legal authorization in their municipal laws.
In the same vein, the products for export must meet minimum International Standards and must not be done using child labour.
It is in keeping with this requirement that the National Assembly in May this year passed the enabling Act authorizing Nigeria’s participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
But authorization is not enough because as it stands now most Nigerians are unaware of the existence and essence of the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
This by itself is a threat to the success of the economic programme.
Besides, the few that are aware may be showing much reluctance to participate believing that like many National projects, the programme may come to nothing.
In other words, the African Growth and Opportunity Act may bring no tangible benefit to them.
This is why we need a lot of spade work, first to spread the information to the widest Nigerian Entrepreneurs as to the requirements for participation in the scheme and the attendant benefits.
Nigerian businesses should not treat the act with levity or disinterest because this is a tonic needed to bring in the most needed foreign currency to shore up not only the National economy but also individuals’ socioeconomic standing.
There is no gainsaying the fact that up to this moment, Africa still engages in unfair trade relations, which have always been in favour of the developed countries to the detriment of the developing world.
Surely this new economic order if properly utilized will mark a turning point in trade relations between Africa and the developed world.
We must therefore be seeded to take an active part in the Opportunity Act to rake in the benefit it brings.
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