The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was enacted on May 18, 2000. The purpose of AGOA was to bring about fair and equitable trade between the U.S. and Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries through duty-free access to the U.S. market for various textile and apparel products. Kenya and Mauritius are two Sub-Saharan African countries that participate in AGOA and have experienced export growth in clothing and textiles under the EPZ program.
However, the usefulness of Export Processing Zones (EPZ) within a country has been a long debated subject. Critics argue that the costs of setting them up greatly outweigh the benefits. While Mauritius successfully implemented the EPZ program in the 1970’s and managed to maintain its position as a strong global clothing and textiles trade contender, Kenya has not been as successful. Although Kenya has experienced improved clothing and textile export performance since the inception of the EPZ program in the 1990’s, the country has not managed to secure its share of the global clothing and textile trade market.
The purpose of this research was to investigate whether the presence of Export Processing Zones in Kenya and Mauritius has been beneficial to each country’s industrial development, using AGOA as a catalyst. Results of this study presented as a case study indicate that while the presence of export processing zones was beneficial to industrial development for both countries, more needs to be done to maximize the benefits for Kenya in the advent of AGOA IV.
