By SONYA ROSS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - While Congress continues to weigh the question of trade with China, President Clinton is ready to make official some progress on another trade front: Africa.
Clinton today was signing legislation, backed by Washington's African diplomatic corps, that would make it easier to sell goods from sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean within the United States.
The president scheduled a formal signing ceremony on the White House South Lawn, just after a private meeting with former South African President Nelson Mandela.
It took five years for the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act to move through Congress. The legislation finally passed last week on a 77-19 Senate vote, the first major trade legislation approved since a 1994 bill that led to the creation of the World Trade Organization.
During his historic 1998 tour of Africa, Clinton touted the legislation as a means through which the poorest African countries could build their own economies, reduce their debts and stabilize their governments.
Under the bill, countries can ship, duty-free, clothing made with U.S. yarn and fabrics, provided they meet certain human rights and labor standards.
Clothing made in Africa from African fabric would be allowed to rise from 1.5 percent of U.S. imports to 3.5 percent over eight years, boosting African exports of these products from about $250 million a year now to as much as $4.2 billion.
African nations where the gross domestic product is less than $1,500 a year per person, all but six of the 48 sub-Saharan nations, would have four years of quota-free benefits for apparel made with third-country fabric.
The inclusion of Caribbean nations helps level the trade playing field that tilted in Mexico's favor after the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect.:
