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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published by the Africa Policy Information Center (APIC) from 1995 to 2001 and by Africa Action from 2001 to 2003. APIC was merged into Africa Action in 2001. Please note that many outdated links in this archived document may not work.


Africa: Trade Policy Reform in Congress
Any links to other sites in this file from 1995 are not clickable,
given the difficulty in maintaining up-to-date links in old files.
However, we hope they may still provide leads for your research.
Africa: Trade Policy Reform in Congress
Date Distributed (ymd): 950907

ACTION ALERT

HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
IN AFRICA BY REFORMING U.S. TRADE POLICY

You can increase the income of Sub-Saharan African
countries by pushing for the reform of United States' most
important trade program for developing countries, the
Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).

The Committee on Ways and Means of the House of
Representatives is expected to discuss the reauthorization
of the GSP the week of September 11, and there is a
possibility of passing key changes in the program that could
mean major trade benefits for Africa.  This Action Alert
gives you the background to the issue, a sample letter, and
other information you need to make a difference for
sustainable development in Africa.

For more information, please contact Gareth Porter, the
Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 122 C Street,
N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001,  Tel: (202) 628-1400, Email:
eesi@igc.org; or Nii Akuetteh, Constituency for
Africa, 1030 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20005, Tel: (202)
371-0588, Fax: (202) 371-9017.

HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA BY
REFORMING U.S. TRADE POLICY

TRADE CAN AID AFRICA.

Most Sub-Saharan African countries have become much poorer
in the past decade, in large part because they have lost
much more income from falling commodity prices and heavy
debt repayments than they have received from development
assistance and increased foreign investment and exports.  In
order to pay off their rising debts, they have been
accelerating the exploitation of their forests and the
conversion of their agricultural land from food crops into
export crops like cotton, which often deplete the soil.
These countries desperately need to diversify their
economies by exporting more manufactured and processed
goods, which bring in higher prices on the world market and
do not deplete their natural resources.

WHAT IS THE GENERALIZED SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES (GSP) AND WHY
DOES IT NEED TO BE REFORMED?

The GSP is the primary trade policy instrument that the
United States has to change this situation.  It was created
to encourage the economic development of poor countries by
lowering or waiving tariffs on certain exports from
developing countries into the United States.  However, the
GSP is not benefitting Sub-Saharan Africa.  Of the over $15
billion in U.S. imports that enter the Unites States under
the GSP annually, Africa's exports account for just one
tenth of one percent.

One reason is that the present legislation exempts from
receiving tariff-free treatment the manufactured goods --
such as textiles, clothing and footwear -- that African
countries would be most likely to export.  Thus far neither
Congress nor the Clinton administration has had the
political will to stand up to powerful protectionist
interests such as the textile lobby.

WHAT YOU CAN DO...

Your support is urgently needed to put pressure on Congress
and the Executive Branch to reform the GSP when it is
reeauthorized -- probably bye the end of September. The
House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to discuss
amendments to the GSP reauthorization legislation and
approve the bill the week of September 11.  Both the
Chairman of the Trade Subcommittee, Rep. Phil Crane
(R-Ill.), and the ranking minority member of the
Subcommittee, Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) are interested in
supporting amendments to the bill which would allow
Sub-Saharan African countries tariff-free access to U.S.
markets for textiles, clothing and footwear, thus providing
an important incentive for new foreign investment in
production there, and which would authorize GSP benefits for
those countries for a longer period of years.

Now is the time to contact members of the committee to urge
them to support changing the GSP program to benefit
Sub-Saharan Africa, especially by allowing those countries
to have tariff-free access to the U.S. market for articles
otherwise excluded from the program.  Look at the list of
members of the committee below and see if your member of
Congress is on the committee.  If your member  is on the
list, telephone or send a fax message to the office as soon
as possible on this issue!

[Note to non-U.S. readers: This posting is provided for your
background information and for possible forwarding to those
of your U.S. contacts you think would be interested.]

YOU CAN INFLUENCE THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S POLICY TOO!

Last December, Congress passed a law (H.R. 5110) requiring
the President to come up with a new U.S. trade and
development policy toward Africa.  The office of the U.S.
Trade Representative (USTR) is responsible for directing
this effort, and they have just begun to work on a draft
proposed Africa trade policy.  The time is right for you to
let the USTR know that you want them to support waiving the
statutory product exemptions in the GSP.  So if you fax a
letter to your member of Congress, please send a copy of the
letter to the President's trade representative, Mickey
Kantor. (Address the letter to The Honorable Michael Kantor,
U.S. Trade Representative, 600 17th Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20506. Fax: 202-395-7226).

LIST OF MEMBERS OF HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE BY STATE

House Ways and Means Committee Address: 1102 LHOB,
Washington, D.C. 20151

Republicans:                  (Tel)     Fax)

California- Wally Herger      225-3076  unpublished
California- William M. Thomas 225-2915  225-8798
Connecticut- Nancy Johnson    225-4476  225-4488
Florida- E. Clay Shaw, Jr.    225-3026  225-8398
Illinois- Philip M. Crane     225-3711  225-7830
Iowa- Jim Nussle              225-2911  225-9129
Kentucky- Jim Bunning         225-3465  225-0003
Louisiana- Jim McCrery        225-2777  225-8039
Michigan- Dave Camp           225-3561  225-9679
Minnesota- Jim Ramstad        225-2871  225-6351
Missouri- Melton D. Hancock   225-6536  225-7700
Nebraska- Jon Christensen     225-4155  225-3032
Nevada- John Ensign           225-5965  225-3119
New Jersey- Richard A. Zimmer 225-5801  225-9181
New York- Amo Houghton        225-3161  225-5574
Pennsylvania- Philip English  225-5406  225-3103
Texas- Bill Archer            225-2571  225-4381
Texas- Sam Johnson            225-4201  225-1485
Washington- Jennifer Dunn     225-7761  225-8673

 Democrats:                   (Tel.)    (Fax)

California- Robert T. Matsui  225-7163    225-0566
California- Fortney Stark     225-5065    225-3805
Connecticut- Barbara B. Kennelly 225-2265    225-1031
Florida- Sam Gibbons          225-3376    225-8016
Georgia- John Lewis           225-3801    225-0351
Indiana- Andrew Jacobs, Jr.   225-4011    226-4093
Maryland- Benjamin L. Cardin  225-4016    225-9219
Massachusetts- Richard Neal   225-5601    225-8112
Michigan- Sander M. Levin     225-4961    226-1033
New York- Charles Rangel      225-4365    225-0816
Pennsylvania- William Coyne   225-2301    225-1844
Tennessee- Harold E. Ford     225-3265    225-9215
Virginia- Lewis Payne         225-4711    226-1147
Washington- Jim McDermott     225-3106    225-6197
Wisconsin- Gerald Kleczka     225-4572    225-8135

SAMPLE LETTER TO MEMBER OF CONGRESS URGING SUPPORT FOR
CHANGES IN  GSP TO BENEFIT AFRICA

The Honorable (name of House member)
House Ways and Means Committee
1102 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C.  20515

Dear Representative [     ]:

  I urge you to support reform of the U.S. Generalized
System of Preferences (GSP) to benefit Sub-Saharan Africa
when the reauthorization of GSP is marked up in the Ways and
Means Committee.  The Generalized System of Preferences is
supposed to help developing countries industrialize by
reducing their dependence on primary commodities and
increasing their manufactured exports.  However, less than
one-tenth of one percent of all GSP benefits go to Africa.
At present, GSP does not cover most manufactured products
that African countries can export.  I urge that you support
granting GSP benefits to all exports from Sub-Saharan
African countries -- including those products otherwise
exempted from GSP coverage.  Congress is now cutting back
sharply on development assistance to Africa. It is all the
more important, therefore, to do provide new trade benefits
to Africa under the GSP program.

Sincerely,


*******************************************************
This material is made available by the Washington
Office on Africa (WOA).  WOA is a not-for-profit
church, trade union and civil rights group supported
organization that works with Congress on Africa-related
legislation.

*******************************************************


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