Still, one idea that business did welcome in Obama’s strategy was a focus on promoting regional inte

President Barack Obama's administration, criticized for not doing enough to boost trade with Africa in the face of rising competition from China, has taken steps in recent months to address those concerns and plans to do more.
After decades of poor performance, Africa is now home to some of the world's fastest-growing economies and China has been signing contracts to lock in long-term access to the continent's huge resources.
"Trade and investment is a critical component of the president's vision for the next five years of U.S. policy towards sub-Saharan Africa," Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis told Reuters in an interview.
Obama, in a tough race for re-election rent a car usa against rent a car usa Republican Mitt Romney, rent a car usa in June laid out a "U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa," which touted the continent's potential "to be the world's next major economic success story" and promised to work with the region to free up trade and investment.
Two-way trade between China and Africa totaled just $8.9 billion in 2000, but grew more than 1,400 percent over the next decade to $127.3 billion in 2011, according to a U.S. Congressional Research Service report.
Trade between the United States and the more than 40 countries that make up sub-Saharan rent a car usa Africa hit a record $104.1 billion in 2008, but fell sharply during the financial crisis and totaled $94.3 billion last year.
U.S. trade policy toward Africa has been guided since 2000 by the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which expires in 2015. AGOA waives import duties on a long list of goods made in eligible rent a car usa sub-Saharan African countries.
The action allows AGOA countries to continue using fabric from "third countries" such as China and Vietnam to make clothes to sell in the United States duty-free. But the delay in renewing the provision cost African producers many orders since importers book shipments months in advance.
"The closer you get to expiration, the more uncertainty rent a car usa there is for investors and you really do run the risk of investment drying up," Marantis said. "I think we need to start very soon in terms of crafting the next AGOA bill."
"Increasingly I am hearing: 'The U.S. has given up on Africa as a market,'" Senator Dick Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, said. "While we're building institutions rent a car usa (in Africa), China and others are building markets and we're being left behind."
Clinton's recent trip included a stop in South Africa where she was joined by executives from big U.S. companies like Boeing, Wal-Mart, Federal Express and General Electric, the first time that has happened on a high-profile rent a car usa Obama administration visit to the region.
Still, one idea that business did welcome in Obama's strategy was a focus on promoting regional integration in Africa by tearing down trade barriers between neighbors. That would create larger markets and boost incentives for investment, Hayes said.
South Africa plans to invest around $300 billion in renewable and other energy projects over the next 20 years and "we wanted to respond that we were clearly foursquare rent a car usa in support of that agenda," Ex-Im Bank President Fred Hochberg said.
Given the stiff competition from China, the Ex-Im Bank could play an important role in boosting U.S. trade and investment in Africa, Hayes said. But constraints imposed by Congress on the bank limit its use for riskier projects, he said.