[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 2 (Monday, January 18, 1999)]
[Pages 50-52]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Letter to Congressional Leaders Transmitting a Report on the 
Administration's Comprehensive Trade and Development Policy for Africa

January 13, 1999

Dear __________:

    I am pleased to submit the fourth 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 
year has seen progress in our trade policy and the deepening of trade 
relationships with Africa.
    I was proud to be first President to undertake a comprehensive visit 
to Africa this past year. In March, I visited Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, 
South Africa, Botswana, and Senegal. At each stop, I was struck by the 
remarkable opportunities for the United States

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to expand our growing relationship with Africa based on mutually 
beneficial trade and development. In the months since my return, my 
Administration has worked to expand and exploit those opportunities 
through practical measures, including undertaking trade missions, 
negotiating trade agreements, and implementing debt relief and technical 
assistance programs for Africa's strongest reformers.
    These efforts continue to build on the strategy I announced in the 
June 1997 Partnership for Economic Growth and Opportunity in Africa 
(Partnership). Our goal continues to be sustained economic development 
for Africa, and we are guided by the conviction that economic 
development in Sub-Saharan Africa will benefit both Africans and 
Americans. We continue to believe, as outlined in the Partnership, that 
trade should not replace aid. Effective aid assists countries in 
building healthy, literate, and informed populations able to take 
advantage of the opportunities offered by increased trade and 
investment. Well-focused assistance, combined with strong reforms and 
increased trade and investment, will break Africa's old patterns of 
dependency.
    The report I am sending to the Congress today reviews our 
achievements of the past year in implementing the goals of the 
Partnership. First, we have improved market access for African and 
American products in our respective markets by negotiating trade 
agreements that are mutually beneficial and increasing interaction 
between the United States and African private sectors through trade 
missions and high-level visits.
    Second, we have implemented technical assistance programs to 
increase African knowledge of, and ability to work within, the global 
trading system. Through invigorated reform and assistance efforts, we 
are helping Africa to build the trading infrastructure it will need to 
become a strong trade partner for the United States, integrated within 
the global economy.
    We have also put in place a number of initiatives to increase 
private investment in Sub-Saharan Africa, including the Department of 
Transportation's Safe Skies Initiative, increased access to credit for 
projects in African countries through the Export-Import Bank, and the 
Overseas Private Investment Corporation's equity funds to finance 
increased private investment. With FY99 funds appropriated for this 
purpose, we have begun to forgive remaining bilateral concessional debt 
owed by Africa's strongest reforming countries.
    Finally, we have begun planning for a broad-based meeting at the 
ministerial level with African countries to discuss how we can work most 
effectively together to forward our shared goal of sustained and 
mutually beneficial economic development and trade. We hope to hold the 
first U.S.-African Economic Cooperation Forum with representatives from 
Africa's strongest reforming countries later this year.
    I was disappointed that the 105th Congress did not complete 
consideration of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. This trade 
initiative is an important complement to our Partnership strategy. It 
would afford greater market access for selected products from the 
strongest reforming countries in Africa and, by doing so, would help 
change the dynamic of our trade policy with the continent. The Act would 
also benefit American companies and workers by expanding our trade with 
the largest underdeveloped market in the world. I am committed to 
working for passage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act early in 
the 106th Congress.
    My Administration will continue working with the Congress, the U.S. 
private sector, the countries of Africa, and our trading partners to 
implement the policies and programs contained in the report and to 
promote reforms boosting trade, investment, and development in Africa.
    Sincerely,
                                            William J. Clinton

Note: Identical letters were sent to Jesse Helms, chairman, and Joseph 
R. Biden, Jr., ranking member, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; 
Benjamin A. Gilman, chairman, and Sam Gejdenson, ranking member, House 
Committee on International Relations; William V. Roth, Jr., chairman, 
and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ranking member, Senate Committee on 
Finance; and Bill Archer, chairman, and Charles B. Rangel, ranking 
member, House Committee on Ways and Means. This letter was released by 
the Office of the Press Secretary on January 14.

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