US says no aid for time being

A US government official has said that Zimbabwe does not yet qualify to participate in a concessionary trade arrangement which other African countries are benefiting from, the ‘Standard’ reported on Sunday. Addressing a seminar of the influential black National Bar Association (NBA) in Cape Town at the weekend, counsellor for economic affairs at the American embassy in Pretoria, Robert Godec, said the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA)preconditions were essential to any country’s progress, and “there is really no point in including countries not committed to these principles”. AGOA allows duty and quota-free entry for a range of African goods worth almost US$10-trillion into the US market. He was responding to a request by South African justice minister Penuell Maduna, who had requested that Zimbabwe be allowed to join 35 other African countries benefiting under AGOA, arguing that the region stood to lose from Zimbabwe’s exclusion. Governments have to meet standards set by the bill on democracy, human rights, the rule of law and a market-based economy, to be eligible for AGOA benefits. The US Congress is currently considering a more punitive bill on Zimbabwe - the Zimbabwe 2000 Democracy Act, which seeks to punish the Zimbabwe government for failing to curb lawlessness affecting the farming community and opposition supporters. US-Zimbabwe relations have remained frosty since last year when the southern African country was excluded from benefiting from AGOA.