US raises annual AGOA quota for textiles

The US Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements has released the new annual limit on duty- and quota-free imports of apparel articles assembled from regional and third-country fabric under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in the next fiscal beginning October 1. The figure is a 2.9 per cent rise over the limit in the current fiscal period.

For apparel articles fully assembled in any beneficiary African country from fabric wholly manufactured in any beneficiary country from yarn originating in the United States or any beneficiary country, the new annual limit is 2,022,822,376 square metres equivalent (SME), Apparel articles entered in excess of these quantities will be subject to otherwise applicable tariffs, according to a recent US Federal Register notice.

Of this limit, 1,011,411,188 SME is available for apparel articles imported under the AGOA third-country fabric provision, a special rule for lesser-developed countries that offers preferential treatment for apparel articles assembled in one or more lesser-developed beneficiary African countries, regardless of the country of origin of the fabric used.

The AGOA Acceleration Act of 2004 mandates that the quantitative limit for the 12-month period beginning October 1, 2017, will be an amount not to exceed 7 per cent of the aggregate square meter equivalents of all apparel articles imported into the United States in the preceding 12-month period.