Ethiopia has secured 1.72 million U.S. dollars from the export of textile products to the United States through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) , the country's Customs Authority said.

Tekle Gebre-hiywot, senior export of rule of origin with the authority, told reporters on Sunday that the amount of export revenue being obtained from the export of textile products to the United States has been increasing since 2000.

He said the country had shipped 413,330 kg of textile products to the United States in 2005 alone.

However, he added that though the volume of textile products being exported by Ethiopia has increased, entrepreneurs have not managed to benefit from AGOA as expected.

He attributed the problem to limited number of entrepreneurs engaged in textile industry sector and failure on the part of entrepreneurs to ship textile products in sustainable manner, lack of raw materials and skilled labor, among others.

Tekle stressed the need that entrepreneurs should take advantage of AGOA to enable the nation to obtain more foreign currency from the export of textile products.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is historic, bipartisan legislation enacted in 2000.

AGOA marked a fundamental shift in U.S. policy toward Africa -- for the first time, the United States emphasized increased trade as a means of promoting economic development, as much as the traditional forms of development assistance.

AGOA sought to increase trade by allowing qualifying sub- Saharan African countries to export more products to the United States duty-free.

Source: Xinhua