A workshop on African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), designed to sensitize Mauritian entrepreneurs on existing opportunities i n US market, opened in the Mauritian capital, Port-Louis, Monday, PANA reports .
The workshop, whose theme is “Exportation to the US under AGOA”, will also provi de eligible African countries access to the world’s largest economy.
Opening the workshop, Mauritian Industry Minister Dharam Gokhool recalled that t he AGOA also allowed duty-free access to non-textile products under the Generali s ed System of Preferences (GSP) scheme.
He pointed out that although 6,400 products were covered under AGOA, exports fr om Mauritius to the US had been concentrated mostly on textiles.
Business, Enterprise and Cooperatives Minister Mahendra Gowresso, told local ent repreneurs that the US was a huge market that Mauritians needed to explore.
“You have the potential to exploit that market not only in textiles but also in many other products,” he observed.
Also speaking to the participants, the US Chargé d’Affaires in Mauritius, Virgi nia Blaser, urged Mauritian enterprises to take advantage of AGOA to diversify t h eir exports to the US market, now dominated at 90% by textiles and clothings.
“You must break away from this and diversify»,” she stressed.
Blaser observed that a few Mauritian enterprises had started exporting other pro ducts like jam, agricultural rum, tuna, spices, honey and special salt to the US .
