Taking stock of America’s flagship trade programme for Africa

Pankaj bediAGOAAGOA strides through his factory on the edge of Nairobi, past clattering sewing machines, bustling workers and boxes of jeans. None of this would be here, he says, were it not for the African Growth and Opportunity Act (). The landmark trade policy was introduced by Bill Clinton in 2000, granting duty-free access for more than 6,000 products from sub-Saharan Africa. Two years later, Mr Bedi opened United Aryan, his clothing business in Kenya. He now employs 14,000 people.Lately Mr Bedi’s financiers have all been asking the same question: what will happen in 2025, when is set to expire? It will be extended, he assures them, as it has been before. The trouble is that Congress has a habit of waiting until the last minute. Already, he has put on hold plans to grow cotton and make his own fabric. If an extension is not enacted this year, then orders from American buyers could start to dip, at the cost of African jobs.