UGANDA'S MUSEVENI PRAISES U.S. AND AGOA

UNCLAS KAMPALA 000311 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT PASS TO USTR FOR BILL JACKSON SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EFIN ETRD KTDB PGOV UG SUBJECT: UGANDA'S MUSEVENI PRAISES U.S. AND AGOA REF: KAMPALA 000160 ¶1. President Museveni expressed gratitude to the United States for opening its markets. In a speech on February 23 celebrating the first shipment of 100 percent Ugandan made organic cotton t-shirts to the United States, Museveni said, "the fact that the eleven trillion dollar U.S. market is opened for Uganda should be headlines in all the newspapers... this is a gold mine." Museveni, chastised Ugandan radio and television for not emphasizing these benefits in their reporting. The President continued and stated, "That is why I am a good friend of the US." He said his friendship is conditional on the U.S. being "interested in his interests." He compared the U.S. allowance of 6,500 duty free import products to the Chinese allowance of only 440 import products and noted that he once closed the Chinese Embassy before they started to open their market. ¶2. Museveni praised the staff of Phenix Logistics the textile firm making this shipment to the U.S. market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Museveni stressed the importance of adding value to Uganda raw materials in order to expand Uganda's export market. He stated, "when Uganda supplied only unprocessed cotton to the European market they made one US dollar per kilo, while the Europeans processed the cotton and sold it for fifteen dollars". Museveni added "this is like us providing 14 dollars of aid to Europe on every kilo of cotton." ¶3. Museveni explained his recipe for economic success. He said Uganda needs: value added export goods; expanding trade in the East African markets; better utilization of raw materials; government facilitation of operators and entrepreneurs; and a healthy infrastructure. BROWNING