US complains of disadvantage as EU-Sadc trade deal kicks in
AS the EU-Southern African Development Community’s (Sadc’s) economic partnership agreement takes effect on Monday, the Obama administration has raised concerns that US companies have been left at a competitive disadvantage because of this country’s unwillingness to negotiate an equivalent trade deal with the US.In a briefing on Thursday, Laird Treiber, economic counsellor at the US embassy in Pretoria, characterised the disadvantage "significant", affecting "maybe a couple of hundred" products.US Trade Representative Michael Froman pressed Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies on the need to negotiate a more reciprocal trade relationship when African trade ministers met in Washington last week to discuss the future of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). A senior US trade official said Davies’s response had been disappointing.Agoa grants qualified African countries duty-free access to the US without requiring specific market access commitments from beneficiaries in return...
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