High-Level Dialogue on Deepening U.S.-Africa Trade and Investment Relation on the margins of the 2026 WTO MC 14

MC 14 will be one of the most important Ministerial Conferences in the World Trade Organization (WTO) ’s history as delegates consider proposals to reform the global trading system to make the process more efficient and address long-standing concerns, while balancing the need to support the development of sectors that depend on greater integration, including critical minerals, digital trade and services and the transition to new energy sources. The private sector has a strong interest in seeing reforms that support the policy certainty and commercial stability companies need to plan and invest.

Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) sees an opportunity to contribute to the elevation of Africa’s profile as an important part of the solution to global trade challenges. The U.S. unilateral trade preference program, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), has been reauthorized through the end of 2026 after lapsing for the first time in its history on September 30, 2025.

This short-term renewal and lapse have accelerated the importance of U.S. and African partners working together to determine how best to improve or enhance AGOA (as the U.S. Government says is needed) as well as create a framework for going “Beyond AGOA” that will develop a roadmap for moving beyond trade preferences to sustainable trade and investment partnerships that expand American access to African markets while supporting Africa’s industrialization and economic integration into global value chains. This framework and an improved AGOA regime would support ongoing efforts within the WTO to broaden access and development through trade and investment.

CCA is delighted to invite African Trade Ministers and Heads of Delegation to a working dinner, on Wednesday, March 25 at 7:00 pm, to begin this timely and important discussion of what a renewed AGOA and a long-term U.S.-Africa trade and investment framework should look like.