From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Nov 25 2009 - 09:17:54 EST
Ethiopian Opposition Slates U.S. Help for Ruling Party Company
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By Jason McLure
Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) --
<http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/ethiopia_pol99.jpg> Ethiopia's main
opposition party criticized a U.S. aid program for helping a textile plant
with ties to the country's ruling party win a multimillion dollar contract
from an American company.
The program, known as the AGOA Plus project, is designed to help link
African manufacturers to American buyers in order to take advantage of
preferential tariff treatment under the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
The so-called AGOA program, started by the U.S. government in 2000, allows
about 6,500 products from Africa to enter the U.S. free of duties or quotas.
On Nov. 19, the <http://www.usaid.gov> U.S. Agency for International
Development- funded AGOA Plus said it brokered a contract worth as much as
$30 million annually between Jackson, Mississippi-based
<http://amgmfg.com/> Atlas Manufacturing Group and Almeda Textile. Almeda is
part of a group of companies that was founded and is controlled by members
of Ethiopia's ruling party.
"The American government is using public money to support a dictatorial
government,"
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Beyene+Petros&site=wnews&client=wnews&
proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields
=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1> Beyene Petros, an opposition lawmaker from the
Forum for Democratic Dialogue, said in a phone interview on Nov. 23. "This
is simply crazy. I don't know who is advising them or why they are doing
this."
As part of the deal, Almeda will produce restaurant uniforms and other
garments for Atlas, which specializes in importing textiles to the U.S. from
African countries eligible under AGOA. Ethiopian textile exports under AGOA
were $18 million in 2008, lagging countries such as
<http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/lesotho_pol90.jpg> Lesotho, which
exported $340 million in goods under the trade pact.
Economic Development
Michael Gonzales, a spokesman for the <http://ethiopia.usembassy.gov> U.S.
Embassy in Ethiopia, said the goal of the project was to foster economic
development, not help political parties. In matching U.S. buyers with
Ethiopian manufacturers, it didn't provide American companies with
information about the ownership of Ethiopian factories, Gonzales said in a
phone interview yesterday.
The U.S. works with the Ethiopian Textile and Garment Manufacturers
Association, Gonzales said.
"Almeda is a member of this association," he said. "Almeda is one of
relatively few Ethiopian factories with the capacity to fill an order of
this volume."
Razvan Ionele, general manager of Almeda, said in an e- mailed response to
questions that the deal would consolidate the image that Ethiopia is a
possible sourcing location for producing textiles. He declined to comment on
the company's ties to Ethiopia's ruling party.
James Langford, chairman of Atlas Manufacturing, declined to comment, when
contacted via e-mail yesterday.
Elections
Foreign aid to Ethiopia has emerged as an issue ahead of national elections
scheduled for May, which the opposition has warned may not be free and fair.
Earlier this month, the Forum for Democratic Dialogue said its members had
been denied access to a food aid program funded by the U.S., the U.K. and
the World Bank as well as Ethiopian government jobs funded by foreign
donors. The government has denied the allegations, and the American and
British governments have said they are probing the claims.
Almeda, located in the northern city of Adwa, the birthplace of Ethiopian
Prime Minister
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Meles+Zenawi&site=wnews&client=wnews&p
roxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=
wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1> Meles Zenawi, is owned by the Endowment Fund for the
Rehabilitation of Tigray, or Effort, one of Ethiopia's largest business
groups. It comprises more than a dozen companies established by former
guerrillas from Meles's Tigray Peoples Liberation Front that seized power
from the Communist Derg government in 1991.
Effort's CEO, Abadi Zemu, is a senior official in the TPLF, which has ruled
Ethiopia for the past 18-years in an alliance of pro-Meles parties known as
the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front. Effort's deputy chief
executive, Azeb Mesfin, is Meles's wife.
Opaque
Last year, the <http://www.worldbank.org> World Bank's Ethiopia country
director said the finances of Ethiopia's endowment businesses were opaque
and a bank report this year called on policy makers to ensure that endowment
firms are managed at arms-length to the government.
Effort is using the profit from Almeda and its other businesses for economic
development and projects like schools and housing in Ethiopia's ethnic
Tigray region and not for political purposes, said Abadi.
"The initial money of course was from the TPLF," he said in phone interview
yesterday from the northern city of Mekelle. "But since then the ruling
party cannot make any claim on its resources."
Addis Alemayehu, the director of the AGOA Plus project, said his
organization had been working on the deal for 18 months and said its intent
was to create jobs.
"For me, you go to the factory and you look at the 2,000 to 3,000 Ethiopians
working, that's all I care about," he said in a phone interview on Nov. 23
in Addis Ababa. "There's always going to be a negative side when it comes to
deals like this."
