US embassy cable - 04HARARE535

UNCLAS HARARE 000535 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF/S 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR JFRAZER 
USDOC FOR AMANDA HILLIGAS 
TREASURY FOR OREN WYCHE-SHAW 
PASS USTR FLORIZELLE LISER 
STATE PASS USAID FOR MARJORIE COPSON 
AF/EPS FOR DAVID KRZYWDA 
DOL FOR ROBERT YOUNG 
 
E. O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, ECON, ELAB, PGOV, ZI 
SUBJECT: Getting AGOA on Zimbabwe's Radar 
 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: Recent attempts to arouse local 
interest in the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) 
have met with mixed, but mostly positive, results.  Post- 
sponsored AGOA workshops in Harare and Bulawayo drew 
seventy local firms, five Industry/Trade Ministry 
officials and the Managing Director of the GOZ's Export 
Credit Guarantee Corporation.  This was Post's first 
orchestrated effort to show local government and industry 
what they are missing out on by Zimbabwe's failure to 
qualify for AGOA.  End summary. 
 
Avid Local Interest in AGOA 
--------------------------- 
2. (SBU) Post teamed with ZimTrade, the GOZ's export 
promotion body, to host AGOA seminars in Zimbabwe's two 
largest cities on March 23-24.  At the recommendation of 
the Amembassy Pretoria tradeoff, we invited Jack Kipling, 
RSA Clothing Export Council Chairman.  He spoke glowingly 
of AGOA as the "wind beneath the wings" of the RSA 
apparel sector, impressing upon Zimbabwean audiences how 
the Act had transformed his country's approach to trade. 
Reps of the seventy firms who attended the sessions 
repeatedly asked GOZ officials present why they were not 
doing more to bring Zimbabwe into AGOA.  It was an 
awkward position for these GOZ bureaucrats, who asserted 
that only politicians make these decisions, or that the 
GOZ's new monetary policy was now improving the country's 
prospects of qualifying for AGOA.  In fact, ZimTrade reps 
told us several GOZ hardliners had pressured them to call 
off the seminars.  The GOZ propaganda mill's spin was 
that Zimbabwe now nearly qualified for AGOA (fabricating 
a quote by Embassy econoff), but more constructively, 
that the trade act could be something good for the 
country. 
 
Comment 
------- 
3. (SBU) Given that Zimbabwe falls woefully short of 
AGOA's qualifying criteria, Post pondered carefully 
whether to arrange these events.  It marked the first 
time we have trumpeted AGOA's attributes here in such a 
visible manner, and it carried certain risks.  In the 
end, we decided it was better to walk the fine line and 
try to help Zimbabweans appreciate what they are missing 
out on - without resorting to Schadenfreude.  We also did 
not want Zimbabweans to view their country's exclusion as 
a broad trade sanction against its population or business 
community, so we spelled out the advantages of Zimbabwe's 
existing Generalized System of Preferences privileges in 
the seminars.  Thankfully, our worst apprehensions - that 
the contentious official media would belittle AGOA as 
imperial conquest, as it sometimes does to the New 
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) - were not 
borne out.  It seemed the very visible participation of 
GOZ officials helped insulate us to some extent. 
Further, their enthusiastic participation enabled us to 
drive a wedge between GOZ hardliners and moderates. 
Given AGOA's upbeat reception in this first "trial 
balloon," we will look for other inventive ways to plug 
the trade act.  We also encourage U.S.-based officials to 
hold out AGOA as a potential carrot in public 
pronouncements about Zimbabwe. 
 
Sullivan