---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 4 Mar 2000 05:55:07 -0800
From: David Mozer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [wa-afr-network] Fwd: ACTION: AGOA in Legis Conference Cmte - WOA
------- Start of forwarded message -------
Date sent: Wed, 01 Mar 2000 15:17:49 -0500
From: Leon Spencer <[log in to unmask]>
Send reply to: [log in to unmask]
Organization: Washington Office on Africa
The Washington Office on Africa:
An Action Alert
March 2000
The African Growth and Opportunity Act:
Conference Committee Deliberations
The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has passed both
House and Senate, and despite delays since our last alert at the end
of 1999, Congress seems intent on resolving differences before a
conference committee, perhaps in first or second week of March.
Our concerns about this legislation remain. You may consult our
website (www.woaafrica.org) for more extended analyses, so we will
not review those broad issues of a fair and just trade policy toward
Africa now. However, we will bring to your attention the issues
before the conference committee that we consider key, and we
encourage you to contact both members of the conference
committee and your members of Congress urging the actions below:
· The eligibility requirements in the House version of AGOA are far
more restrictive than those that ap-pear in the Senate version.
Notable are those relating to national treatment of foreign investors,
re-moving restrictions on investments, pressuring governments to
cede their legitimate role of social and economic oversight to the
private sector, and intellectual property rights. We urge that the
conference committee accept the Senate version which, while
hardly ideal, is less onerous.
· The Senate version of AGOA mandates the use of U.S. cloth, yarn
and thread in apparel production. This requirement effectively
eliminates any advantage of the bill's textiles provisions to Africans.
We urge that the conference committee accept the House language
on textiles.
· Neither the Senate nor the House versions do anything substantive
regarding definitive debt cancellation for Africa, but a Senate
amendment, declaring a "sense of Congress," strongly affirms the
need to address the debt issue. We urge that the conference
committee accept the Senate language on debt relief.
At the time of this writing the House conferees still have not been
specifically identified. However, infor-mal negotiations that have
taken place have included Reps. Ben Gilman (R-NY), Sam
Gejdenson (D-CT), Ed Royce (R-CA) and Donald Payne (D-NJ),
Bill Archer (R-TX), Charlie Rangel (D-NY), Phil Crane (R-IL),
Sander Levin (D-MI), and Bill Thomas (R-CA).
Senate conferees are Senators William Roth (R-DE), Charles
Grassly (R-IA), Trent Lott (R-MS), Jesse Helms (R-NC), Patrick
Moynihan (D-NY), Max Baucus (D-MT) and Joseph Biden (D-DE).
Please consider contacting them and your members of Congress
and urge that they support the positions outlined above.
Write to Senators at the U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510, or
call 202/224-3121; write to Members of Congress at the U.S. House
of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515, or call 202/225-3121.
Thank you for considering these actions.
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For complete information on the Washington State-Africa Network visit: http://www.ibike.org/africasummit/index.htm
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