“With investment partnerships with US companies and technical assistance from USAID, we fully expect to see another large increase in exports in 2016 with the potential to provide employment opportunities for thousands of people,” Melinda Tabler-Stone – Charge d’Afffaires at the US Embassy – said at a sensitisation workshop on exporting to the US under AGOA.“The US government, through USAID, is working closely with industries such as the apparel sector to help realise Ghana’s potential and we are seeing encouraging signs of progress,” she said.

The workshop was the first in a series of AGOA outreach events organised by the AGOA Trade Resource Centre at the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in collaboration with the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) and the USAID West Africa Trade and Investment Hub, the B&FT report said.Melinda Tabler-Stone said: “AGOA has been a centre-piece of trade relationship in Africa over the past fifteen years and this extension provides Ghana and other African countries a partnership and an opportunity to attract new long-term investments”.AGOA is the US government’s signature trade initiative with sub-Saharan Africa, with 37 beneficiary countries enjoying duty-free status for exports into the US.AGOA waives duties on more than 6,400 products exports from eligible African countries to the US, and the event also served as a platform for the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) to publicise a series of technical workshop activities mandated under the $$14,800 USAID grant.