Cablegate: Uganda's Museveni Praises U.S. And Agoa

VZCZCXRO7383
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHKM #0311 0570703
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 260703Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY KAMPALA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8290
RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE

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

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