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Namibia trade ministry to host AGOA capacity building workshops

The Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade will host two hybrid events focused on how Namibian companies can start exporting goods to the United States of America.

These events to be held in Windhoek on 8 and 15 June, will focus mainly on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and will allow for capacity building. 

This was said in a statement issued by the ministry’s chief information officer Elijah Mukubonda which added that the event will be held in conjunction with the USAID Tradehub

“Both events aim to provide an overview of Namibia’s AGOA key principles, export opportunities and information on the requirements to successfully export goods to the United States,” said the statement. 

According to the ministry, discussions at the events will focus on export procedures, preparing and sending shipments to the United States, sharing expertise in logistics, Namibian customs regulations, documentation (including Certificate of Origin), US customs requirements and border protection, warehousing, distribution and fulfilment in the US and international commercial terms. 

Last year, Namibia launched its AGOA utilisation strategy with the objective of diversifying and increasing exports to the United States under the Agoa protocol. 

The strategy mainly seeks to assist Namibia to develop its competitiveness in utilising the generalised system of preferences (GSP) that provides eligible African countries duty-free access to the US market. 

Namibia is keen to get maximum benefits from Agoa’s trade potential in trade, investments and skills transfer through market access, strengthening technical assistance and capacity building initiatives. 

This is to improve and expand Namibia’s export basket to the USA market, said the statement. 

“We can never over­emphasise the tremendous support that the US government is giving to expand the volume of bilateral trade and defining the commercial relations between the United States and Namibia,” said the ministry in the statement. 

“The Namibian business community, exporting companies and companies with potential to export to the US are invited to attend the events that will be held at Droombos Vineyard Country lodge, Windhoek.” 

Download Namibia’s AGOA strategy here.

Source article: The Namibian

Workshop 8 June