Peter Craig arrived in Washington in 1991, appointed trade advisor at the Embassy of Mauritius at a time when the United States was at best an afterthought in Mauritian trade policy, which was focused on Europe, and all of Africa was only a footnote in US policy. Over the next 14 years, the relationship between the United States and Africa in general and Mauritius in particular changed dramatically. Throughout these changes, there was one constant: Peter Craig was always present, involved, coaxing and encouraging the dynamic evolution of US trade policy toward Africa, as well as the reciprocal interest by Africa in the United States as the best opportunity for private-sector driven development.

In recognition of his dedicated service and contribution to the evolving and increasingly important US-Mauritius relationship, Peter was promoted to the position of Trade Commissioner in 2000. This was a unique honor, representing the only Trade Commissioner appointed by the Mauritian Government.

Last week, however, following general elections that brought a new Government to power in Mauritius, Peter Craig was informed that his tenure in Washington was ended and he was being recalled to Mauritius. Peter had served under the four preceding Mauritian Governments, which is eloquent testimony to both his competence and his professionalism. As Peter?s tenure in Washington comes to a close, it is only appropriate that those who have worked closely with Peter and those who have benefited from his work in Washington should reflect upon and express their appreciation for his contribution to the new and successful economic relationship between Africa, Mauritius and the United States.

Peter is widely known and respected in Congress, the Administration and with key players in the US private sector. It is hard to imagine that anyone else from Mauritius will be able to reproduce the sort of contacts that Peter has here. Indeed, Peter is recognized in Washington as the leading representative of all of Africa on matters relating to trade and economic relations, as is illustrated by his role as Dean of the African Economic Counsellors and Chairman of their Committee.

Agoa: The cornerstone of US economic policy regarding Africa is without doubt the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). Peter directly participated in all stages of the development, enactment, implementation and amendment of Agoa. Success has a thousand fathers, but no one in Africa can claim greater parental rights to Agoa than Peter, who was involved from the very beginning of the process, including drafting the testimony given by the Mauritian Ambassador at the very first hearing held in 1995 on developing a new US economic agenda toward Africa. Many of the points raised in that testimony were incorporated into what eventually became Agoa. Peter was personally engaged in the long, hard fight to convince Congress to enact Agoa on virtually a daily basis between 1995 and 2000.

One of the reasons Agoa was enacted was because the African Diplomatic Corps for the first time in its history became unified in support of this revolutionary new program focused on private sector-driven development. Much of the credit for this previously unprecedented consensus among the African Diplomatic Corps must be given to Peter. No other African diplomat devoted the same level of effort to the development of Agoa and to maintaining a united front among the usually fractious African Diplomatic Corps. In recognition of his expertise, the African Diplomatic Corps appointed Peter as its Agoa expert and regularly commissioned him to prepare briefing papers and position statements on behalf of the entire Diplomatic Corps.

In particular, Peter can claim unique and little-known credit for the Agoa III amendments, which included the extremely important extension of Agoa from 2007 through 2015. In July 2004, the Agoa III amendments had passed the House of Representatives, but were stuck in the Senate, where Senator Fritz Hollings had placed a hold on the bill. Peter played a critical role in behind-the-scenes negotiations with Senator Hollings that resulted in the lifting of the hold, which was followed literally within hours by the enactment of the Agoa III amendments.

Mauritius LDC Derogation: Peter was also directly involved in and responsible for Congress? extension of the special LDC derogation to Mauritius, which enabled Mauritius to utilize more available, less expensive third-country fabric in its duty-free apparel exports under Agoa. Most observers viewed the request for LDC status for Mauritius as Quixotic because Mauritius, after all, has the highest income level in all of Africa.

Recent reports in the Mauritian press have misstated the circumstances that led to the enactment of the Mauritius LDC derogation. It is appropriate, therefore, to take this opportunity to set the record straight. In particular, press reports have indicated that Mauritius did not request LDC status in connection with the Agoa II amendments, which were enacted in 2002 and which extended LDC status to Botswana and Namibia. That is incorrect.

Rather, the efforts to obtain LDC status for Mauritius actually began in 2001, when the US Customs Service erroneously interpreted Agoa as not granting duty-free status to knit-to-shape knitwear. This had a serious negative effect on the Mauritian knitwear industry. Accordingly, we began a campaign to try to convince Congress to amend Agoa to clarify that knit-to-shape apparel is indeed eligible under Agoa. Peter was instrumental in the development of this first set of Agoa amendments, which were known as ?Agoa II.?

At the same time, Botswana and Namibia, which like Mauritius were originally classified as non-LDCs, began to lobby Congress and the Administration to be reclassified as LDCs. Mauritius immediately made the same request. However, the US textile industry strenuously opposed our request that Mauritius be reclassified as an LDC because they viewed Mauritius as the only serious competition in Africa. They did not oppose the reclassification of Botswana and Namibia, however, because neither country had any significant textile or apparel production. Senior Congressional and Administration officials expressed concern that the Agoa II amendments would be delayed indefinitely if Mauritius continued to push its request for LDC status. Because that would have likewise delayed the knit-to-shape correction, it was decided ? after consultations at the highest levels of the Mauritian government ? to not insist that the Agoa II amendments must include the Mauritius LDC provision. Instead, it was decided to focus on obtaining the knit-to-shape correction, while the LDC issue would become the focus of the next round of Agoa amendments. Once Mauritius withdrew its request for LDC status, the Agoa II amendments, including the knit-to-shape correction, were enacted in a matter of months.

Peter then began a campaign to convince the US textile industry not to oppose LDC status for Mauritius. Although it took two years of painstaking work, that effort succeeded. Today, Mauritius is the only country in Africa that has a solid working relationship with the US textile industry. Equally important, the US textile industry did not oppose the request for LDC status for Mauritius when it was raised again in 2003.

This time, however, Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) of the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over trade-related legislation, refused to allow the Mauritius LDC provision to be included in the next round of AGOA amendments, known as ?Agoa III,? because of his misperception that Mauritius had led the charge by developing countries that scuttled the Cancun WTO Ministerial.

Having been rebuffed twice in direct approaches to have the Mauritius LDC provision included in Agoa amendments, we adopted a more indirect strategy that focused on the so-called Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB), pursuant to which technical and other minor changes are made to US trade laws. Two years of constant effort finally paid off, when the Congressional conference committee considering the 2004 MTB accepted the Mauritius LDC provision, which was then enacted in November 2004. Here too Chairman Thomas made his views on Mauritius felt, as he insisted that the LDC provision must be limited to only one year, October 1, 2004-September 30, 2005. Beginning virtually immediately after the 2004 MTB was enacted, we began a campaign to try to have the provision extended. These efforts are still ongoing . (...)

Because of his contacts and the respect in which he is held here in Washington, Peter is as close to irreplaceable as anyone can be, having been instrumental in the tremendous evolution of US trade and economic policy regarding Africa over the past 14 years. So Mauritius and all of Africa should join together in expressing their gratitude for his service and accomplishments. Thank you, Peter, for all you have done for Agoa, for Africa, and for Mauritius.

by Paul RYBERG <I>President, Mauritius-US Business Association</B>