Laird Treiber: Good morning. My name is Laird Treiber. I’m a senior non-resident associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. And it’s my pleasure to welcome you to this morning’s program, “Voices from American Industry on the AGOA Forum.”
This topic couldn’t be any more timely, in that companies – U.S. and African – from across the continent are already gathering in Johannesburg, and trade ministers will be meeting through the 2nd through the 4th of November this week. There is already quite a buzz in terms of the importance of AGOA, in terms of deepening U.S.-African trade and investment relations. And a number of companies and ministers have already made strong public statements that they would like to see early renewal of AGOA for another 10 years. So this is – getting this kind of perspective that we’ll get from today in terms of three very important companies is extremely timely.
But before we get to that, we are honored to have with us today Chairman John James, who is the chairman of the African Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to offer his thoughts on these important issues. Chairman James, the floor is yours.
Source: CSIS