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Following are few extracts from the transcript of the Daily Press Briefing at the United States Department of State in Washington, DC.

Tom Casey, Acting Spokesman
Washington, DC
June 2, 2006

QUESTION: Are you concerned at the growing importance of China and Africa and would you be looking at other trading blocs and their interest within China?

MS. THOMAS-GREENFIELD: I think —

QUESTION: Within Africa, sorry.

MS. THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Yeah. I think concern is not the word. I think we’re watching it very closely. But there is lots of room for every country to do trade and development in Africa.

QUESTION: Any moves to bring about some kind of a free-trade arrangement – two way free-trade arrangement?

MS. THOMAS-GREENFIELD: With Africa?

QUESTION: Yeah.

MS. THOMAS-GREENFIELD: I think that’s part of what AGOA is about. And then there are the general preferences that also include Africa and we’re encouraging African countries to participate in the World Trade Organization. So I think it’s moving in that direction, but we haven’t gotten there quite yet.

QUESTION: When you look at trade with Africa, are you looking at trading blocs as a Southern African trading bloc or West African trading bloc? Or how do you deal with that?

MS. THOMAS-GREENFIELD: I think with AGOA, we have 37 countries, but you’ll also note that we have invited some other regional grouping, such as COMESA and the East Africans and ECOWAS. So part of what AGOA is looking to do is not only encourage more trade between Africa and the United States, but also encourage greater cooperation between African countries so that they can meet the demands
of the U.S. market.

QUESTION: So are the 37 countries — so are any countries not members?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY THOMAS-GREENFIELD: If there are only 37, yes, there are —

QUESTION: Okay.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY THOMAS-GREENFIELD: — because they have to meet eligibility requirements and some who are members of AGOA are sometimes taken off the list because they no longer meet those requirements.

QUESTION: Right. And which ones have been taken off the list recently?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY THOMAS-GREENFIELD: The one I can think of right now is Mauritania because of the coup in 2005.

QUESTION: Okay. And any you see as being eligible for membership soon?

MS. THOMAS-GREENFIELD: We are looking at Liberia.

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: Is Zimbabwe (inaudible) a member?

MS. THOMAS-GREENFIELD: No.

QUESTION: When you talk about these 2.7 billion, is it two-way trade?

MS. THOMAS-GREENFIELD: It’s trade from Africa to the United States.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) and who’s favor is it now, at present?

MS. THOMAS-GREENFIELD: I don’t know the answer to that. My guess is that there’s probably more trade going from the U.S., but I don’t know the answer, to be very frank.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 2nd, 2006 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Africa, Development Issues, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.