2019 African growth and opportunity act: Côte d'Ivoire is Ready to welcome the World

The 18th U.S.-sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum (AGOA Forum), will be held in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, in summer 2019.

This event that will gather in Ivory Coast, the whole actors of the AGOA in Africa and USA, clearly represents a huge challenge for this country that, having gone through a long period of political crisis, tries since several years, to regain its position as leader of the sub-region. 

AGOA is an initiative of the US Government to increase trade between the United States and developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The agreement signed in 2000 allows more than 6,600 products from these countries to enter the US market without payment of customs duties.

Côte d'Ivoire, the world's leading producer of cocoa and exporter of many raw materials and processed products, intends to play its part in promoting this cooperation initiative. The Ivorian government has been working twice as hard to guarantee the success of this forum. A National Organizing Committee chaired by the Prime Minister was set up at the beginning of February 2019. This committee, which also includes the Minister of Commerce and the Minister of Foreign Affairs as vice presidents, will have the mission to conduct strategic reflections on a general topic for the event as well as the sub-topics and relevant issues. 

The official announcement of the date and the general theme will be made simultaneously in Abidjan and Washington in the weeks to come. In the meantime, preparations are well underway, and there is no doubt that the country will be ready to take up this new challenge on its march towards the economic emergence by 2020.

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