Ed Royce: “I was going to make the point that under AGOA, and there are 37 countries that have qualified for the African Growth and…”

“I was going to make the point that under AGOA, and there are 37 countries that have qualified for the African Growth and Opportunity Act, this act is supported in fact by all the governments of Africa. We have heard from their diplomatic corps. We have heard that increased trade from Africa as a result of this act, drastically increased trade, has been a win for Africa and has been a win for the United States. But I did want to clarify one point. There have been no countries that have been dropped from this list because of water issues or questions about privatization of water, and there certainly have been no countries dropped because of intellectual property rights issues. The one case of a country that was dropped from eligibility for AGOA is the case of Eritrea. In this particular instance, it goes to the issue of human rights, and human rights, because this is a unilateral trade preference granted these governments, there is an expectation that they will conform to worldwide, accepted practices.”