AGOA hurts Africans, say critics

US-AFRICA: Trade Soars as Labour Rights Languish
IPS - Italy
WASHINGTON, Jan 11 (IPS) - At a recent forum held here by the progressive Economic Policy Institute, labour and human rights activists criticised what they consider a lack of adequate protections for workers contained in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a unilateral U.S. trade deal aimed at increasing commerce between the United States and Sub-Saharan African countries ... The agreement currently affects trade relations with 39 countries and has led to a large increase in trade between the United States and Africa. According to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, in 1999 U.S. imports from Africa amounted to roughly 13.7 billion dollars. In 2006, the last year for which data is available, that number rose to 59.2 billion dollars. But labour rights activists say the increase in trade and jobs brought by AGOA has not led to a corresponding improvement in conditions for workers ... "Our goal shouldn't simply be to provide any job through our [U.S.] trade policy," Bama Athreya, executive director of the International Labour Rights Forum, told attendees at the forum, "but to provide really decent jobs that come with dignity, respect, and the possibility that these workers can prosper in the future and expect a better life for their children."  ... Critics also say the textile industry in countries that are supposed to benefit the most from AGOA -- primarily Lesotho, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, South Africa, and Swaziland -- is wholly dependent on foreign capital. They say that AGOA led mostly Asian manufacturers to set up in these countries, and did not lead to the growth of any domestic industry ... textile exports fell by 12 percent in 2005 and 11 percent in 2006, largely due to the dismantling of the Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA) ... Matsepo Anna Lehlokoana, an organiser for the Lesotho Clothing and Allied Workers Union (LECAWU), says AGOA initially spurred growth in the textile industry. But she says the number of people employed in the industry, the vast majority women, has fallen to almost half of what it was in 2001. Lehlokoana says the companies that do remain largely ignore health and labour and standards. "If investors come in to operate in a country, there must be some sort... of bond to secure [workers' rights]," she says. A bill introduced by U.S. Congressman Jim McDermott, a Democrat from Washington who was one of chief backers of AGOA in 2000, aims to do just that. Called the "New Partnership for Development Act" (NPDA), the bill would remove tariffs on all products exported from LDCs in an attempt to promote development in the world's poorest countries ...