This is according to a new Memorandum of Understanding signed between the AfCFTA Secretariat and Corporate Council on Africa - an American organisation devoted to fostering US-Africa business relations - with an aim to increase private sector support and involvement in realising the goals of the continental trade agreement.
The deal took place two days prior to the 20th AGOA Forum, one of the major partnership avenues between the US and African countries by giving them preferential access to US markets, allowing them to export products tariff-free, on November 3, in South Africa. As AGOA is set to expire in 2025, African Ministers of Trade expressed the need for urgent renewal of AGOA with non-controversial amendments for a minimum of 10 years to provide the required predictability and certainty to the markets.