If there was ever any need for us to shore up our belief in President Jammeh’s good work, then President Bush’s renewal of The Gambia’s eligility for the trade benefits of Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), must surely be it. If we can recall, AGOA came into existence in a proclamation by President Clinton in Oct 2000, designating thirty-four countries in sub-Sahara Africa as eligible for certain trade benefits.

That proclamation become law, and acting under its powers, President Bush recently released a “Presidential proclamation on 2007 AGOA eligibility for 38 countries”, and the Gambia was one of them.

As with all benefits, certain criteria of performance had to be fulfilled before we qualified for them. In principle, the Act empowers the President to give a package of trade incentives to those sub-Saharan African countries who are making measurable advances in areas such as: “the establishment of a market-based economy, the development of political pluralism and the rule of law, polices to reduce poverty, increased availability of health care and educational opportunities”, and of course in ‘protecting human rights.’ With the fulfillment of these conditions, and others, the beneficiary countries should have ‘the most liberal access to the U.S market’, outside U.S free trade agreements. It is also believed that this would connect Africa into the global economy, as we get improved access to U.S. credit, technical expshise, and investments.

In theory, the benefits which we could derive from AGOA should be enormous, though we are also mindful of the intolerable demands which often accompany the U.S’s offers of assistance. We hope that this time around, the gratuitous arrogance has been shed, and replaced with a genuine friendship based on respect. If nothing else, the rise of China should give the U.S. a huge reason to make more friends around the world.

All the same, President Bush’s gesture is a laudable one. It proves to us once again that President Jammeh is our right choice. For if he had not made strides in the conditions laid down for eligibility, the Gambia would not have been so poised to enjoy the potential benefits of AGOA.