Ghana, last year, exported 43 million dollars worth of products to the United States (US) under the duty and quota-free programme of the African Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA).

The amount constitutes 218 per cent increase in AGOA exports over that of 2000.

However, Ms Rosa Whitaker, US Assistant Trade Representative for Africa, said Ghana could do better by taking advantage of the special relations between her and the US to maximise the benefits under the Act.

She was speaking at the first seminar on the AGOA for Anglophone West Africa opened by Vice President Aliu Mahama in Accra. About 600 participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia are attending the seminar.

Ms Whitaker said few countries have so far recorded high profits since AGOA was enacted two years ago. The whole of Africa lost 92 billion dollars from what she described as investment 'contractions'.

She noted that the situation could be reversed, saying, "we want to see results from ECOWAS and especially, we want to help Ghana to maximise benefits of the Act.

The AGOA was enacted to open up the US market for Africa to export more than 6,000 products to that country under duty and quota-free systems.

It is aimed to promote increased trade and investment between the US and Sub-Saharan Africa by providing eligible African countries with access to the US market.

The Act is also to promote economic development and reform in the sub region and promote increased access and opportunity for US investors and businesses in Africa.

Ghana and Sierra Leone are the only West African countries that have received visa to export products under the Act to the US.

However, Ghana's efforts so far have been to encourage entrepreneurs to form alliances and co-operatives in the cassava, textiles, garments and apparel production for exports to the US.

Vice President Mahama said the government recognised the importance of the opportunities offered under and that efforts and programmes were underway to enable entrepreneurs take advantage of them.

He said: "Our government fully subscribes to the goals of AGOA. We have accordingly initiated measures that should enable our businessmen and women and farmers to take advantage of the opportunities offered by AGOA".

The Vice President said one of such initiative was the President's Special Initiative for cassava industrial starch and textiles, garment and apparel production for export.

"We have determined that the market for industrial starch is huge and very lucrative and the Initiative would meet our goals of creating wealth and employment, reducing poverty and providing specialised support to the vulnerable", he added.

Vice President Mahama said government had established a national committee for the implementation of the AGOA in Ghana and as part of its programmes, the committee was expected to provide an incubatory service to train and resource small-scale businesses to link up with the PSI companies to produce directly for the US.

The National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI) would provide technical assistance for this project, he said and appealed to the USAID to support it.

Ghana’s Minister for Trade and Industry, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, said the revenue realised from exports last year signified that Ghana had the potential to maximise benefits of AGOA.

He said, however, that there was the need for Ghana and the US to work together on support mechanisms to achieve this aim. Dr Apraku said Ghana had established a training centre to train people in especially, cutting and sewing but noted that there was the need to establish one more such centre to serve the Northern Sector of the country.

Ambassador John Huntsman, Deputy US Trade Representative, who led a 21-member delegation to the Ghana-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement Council Meeting, said challenges to Ghana under the Act were great but not impossible to meet.

He said the outcome of the Council's meeting had given him more confidence in the Ghana-US relations.

The seminar was to demystify and simplify the complexities of the framework to ensure that Ghana maximised its benefits of the opportunity. The theme for the seminar is: "Maximising the Benefits of AGOA in West Africa".