[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 6 (Monday, February 12, 1996)]
[Pages 194-195]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Letter to Congressional Leaders on the Comprehensive Trade and 
Development Policy for Africa

February 5, 1996

Dear Mr. Chairman:

    I am pleased to submit the first of five annual reports on the 
Administration's Comprehensive Trade and Development Policy for Africa 
as required by section 134 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act.
    This first report examines the trade and development challenges 
confronting Sub-Saharan Africa, reviews the policies currently being 
pursued to address those challenges, and presents a policy framework for 
the United States as it seeks to support and facilitate African 
initiatives to address these challenges. With this first report, it is 
my intention to open a wider dialogue with the Congress, and with public 
and private sector representatives in Africa and the United States. This 
dialogue will sharpen the focus of the U.S. role in assisting Africa to 
meet its development challenges and, in the process, to promote U.S. 
trade and investment in the region. Subsequent reports to the Congress 
will highlight progress in implementing new initiatives and reflect the 
necessary evolution of U.S. policy.
    The challenges facing Sub-Saharan Africa are difficult and varied. 
Solutions will not be easy or quick. The most critical element of any 
development strategy, upon which the success of all other elements 
depends, is the willingness of the people and their leaders to make the 
correct, and often difficult, policy choices. It is this point that 
gives us cause for optimism about Africa today. Increasingly, democratic 
governments in Africa are implementing market-based economic policies 
that are placing their countries on proven paths to success.
    We must seize this opportunity for partnership with the countries of 
Africa because promoting trade and sustainable development in Africa is 
important for the United States as well as for Africa.
    My Administration understands that, in a time of shrinking Federal 
funding, any strategy to support trade and development in Sub-Saharan 
Africa will need to rely heavily on increased U.S. commercial 
involvement in the region. American firms and workers stand to gain a 
great deal by doing business in Africa. By playing an active role, both 
in direct commercial relations in the region and in cooperation with the 
United States Government, the private sector will generate significant 
benefits for themselves and for the United States and Sub-Saharan Africa 
as a whole.
    I invite the Congress to work closely with my Administration in 
forging a constructive partnership with the people and leaders of Sub-
Saharan Africa to pursue the trade and development objectives that are 
so clearly in our mutual interests. The people of the United States have 
a vested interest in Africa's future, and I hope that this report will 
mark the first step toward a closer dialogue between the Administration 
and the Congress on this important issue.
    I am also pleased to transmit the report prepared by the United 
States International

[[Page 195]]

Trade Commission that my Administration requested on U.S.-African trade 
and investment flows and the potential for growth.
    Sincerely,
                                            William J. Clinton

Note: Identical letters were sent to Jesse Helms, chairman, Senate 
Committee on Foreign Relations; William Roth, chairman, Senate Committee 
on Appropriations; Benjamin A. Gilman, chairman, House Committee on 
International Relations; and Bill Archer, chairman, House Committee on 
Ways and Means.