The President of the United States of America has on Wednesday designated South Sudan as a beneficiary of the Sub-Saharan African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
In a press release issued on Thursday, Barak Obama put South Sudan to AGOA to export a wide variety of products to US markets duty free including apparel, footwear, and some agricultural and processed food products.Last March Obama designated South Sudan as a beneficiary developing country under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) which allows preferential duty-free entry for up to 4,800 products from 129 designated beneficiary countries and territories.
AGOA designation now gives South Sudan an opportunity to export more products than is available under GSP. It also allows access to US credit and expertise.
AGOA is legislation approved by US Congress in May 2000 to assist economies of Sub Saharan Africa and to improve economic relations between the United State and the region.