Opportunities lost as Botswana misses AGOA train
Friday, April 22, 2016
From over 6,000 eligible products Botswana only exports textiles under AGOA
AGOA is a unilateral trade arrangement by the U.S for African countries. The benefits provided by the scheme have allowed for an average of around 70 percent of all imports from sub-Saharan Africa to enter the U.S duty-free.
Although Botswana has most of the factors that are required to be eligible for AGOA, local businesses are still lagging behind when it comes to international trade, particularly in exporting to the United States of America.
Speaker of the National Assembly, Dithapelo Keorapetse, has this week rightly washed his hands of the mess, refusing to wade into a party squabble that has no clear leadership and no single version of the truth.When a single party sends six different letters to the Speaker’s office, each claiming to be the authoritative voice, it is not just confusion, but an embarrassment.Keorapetse is correct to insist on institutional boundaries. Parliament...