event

What Is the Future of U.S.-Africa Trade Policy?

Wed. March 27th, 2024
Washington, DC

Trade and development are two key aspects of the U.S. relationship with Africa and Africa’s relationship with the rest of the world. However, the U.S.-Africa trade relationship is likely to be significantly shaped by the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). In his book How Africa Trades, David Luke presents a wide-ranging analysis of U.S.-Africa relations, including and beyond the lens of great power competition that informs Washington’s policy discussions concerning China’s influence on the continent. As the African Growth and Opportunity Act approaches its expiration in September 2025, and AfCFTA implementation proceeds, how will the United States approach its foundational piece of trade policy toward the world’s youngest continent?

Join the Carnegie Endowment for an informative conversation with leading experts from business and civil society to discuss Professor David Luke’s How Africa Trades and how the United States can rethink trade with Africa.

Read the book in advance: How Africa Trades

EconomyTradeNorth AmericaUnited StatesSouthern, Eastern, and Western Africa
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
event speakers

Zainab Usman

Senior Fellow and Director, Africa Program

Zainab Usman is a senior fellow and inaugural director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. Her fields of expertise include institutions, economic policy, energy policy, and emerging economies in Africa.

David Luke

is a professor in practice and the strategic director at the London School of Economics Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa, where he oversees their program on African trade. He is the former director of the African Trade Policy Centre at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, where he led the technical work on the AfCFTA agreement. His research interests include boosting intra-African trade; the AfCFTA initiative; Africa’s multilateral and bilateral trade relationships; and how trade policy intersects with industrialization, structural transformation, gender, public health, and climate change.

Florizelle (Florie) Liser

is the president and CEO of the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA). Liser joined the CCA from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where she led trade and investment policy toward forty-nine African nations and oversaw implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. While with the USTR, she served as the assistant U.S. trade representative for Africa; assistant U.S. trade representative for industry, market access, and telecommunications; and director of the USTR’s Office of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Affairs. She also served as the senior trade policy adviser in the Office of International Transportation and Trade at the Department of Transportation and an associate fellow at the Overseas Development Council.

Anthony (Tony) Carroll

is a lawyer and international affairs consultant in Washington, DC. He is founding managing director of Acorus Capital, a private equity fund investing in Africa, and senior adviser of Manchester Trade, Ltd., a Washington, DC-based trade policy and investment advisory firm. He began his work in Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana from 1976 to 1978 and returned to the agency to serve as assistant general counsel from 1986 to 1989. Since then, he has advised organizations including the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other bilateral development organizations. He was instrumental in the design and passage of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and more recently the Global HOPE Bill. He is a current board member at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Africa program. Formerly, he served as a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a charter member for the at the U.S. Trade Representative’s Trade Advisory Committee on Africa, and an adjunct professor of African Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.