Bush announces African trade summit

From Linda Petty
CNN.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Saying Americans "want to be more than spectators of Africa's progress," President Bush announced the United States would host a trade and economic development summit for almost three dozen African nations this fall.

"The forum will discuss further measures we can take to stimulate trade, to develop prosperity and to enhance democracy," the president said Wednesday during a Rose Garden ceremony.

Thirty-five eligible countries of a total of 48 sub-Saharan nations will be invited to send three representatives to the two-day Sub-Saharan African Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum in Washington in early October.

"These are countries that are moving toward market-based economies and the rule of law, that are lowering trade barriers and strengthening their commercial law, that are combating corruption and eliminating child labor and that are showing enhanced respect for labor standards and human rights," said Bush.

The forum is required under the African Growth and Opportunity Act that was signed into law by President Clinton last year to help some of the poorest nations in the world.

The summit in Washington will focus on the requirements the African countries must meet in order to take advantage of new trade benefits under the AGOA, which include sending duty-free imports to the United States. AGOA also calls for consideration of a "Free Trade Zone."

The president said Secretary of State Colin Powell may personally deliver some of the forum invitations during his six-day tour through Mali, South Africa, Kenya and Uganda next week. Powell will preside over the October summit and will be joined by U.S. Treasury and Commerce Department officials.

Bush is an ardent free-trade supporter and said the conference would foster cooperation with "valued economic partners" of the United States.

Senegalese Ambassador Mamadou M. Seck, the designated representative of the African diplomatic corps, also spoke at the White House news conference. He noted there are 800 million consumers in Africa and that there is a need for more economic exchange between Africa and America.

"The U.S. share in that market is only 7 percent, when the European Union's share is 40 percent," he said. "We know also that the U.S. export to the continent of Africa represents almost $7 billion, creating in this country 150,000 jobs. This export is more than the U.S. export to the former Soviet Union."

Seck said all the African diplomats attending the ceremony would call their own presidents to report Bush's support for economic cooperation.

Rep. Charles Rangel, the ranking Democratic member of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on trade and Congressional Black Caucus, also praised Bush for giving the forum announcement the attention it deserved by holding the news conference at the Rose Garden. He noted it "could have been done in a little office somewhere."