GOP legislators, McDermott join forces on Africa-trade bill

[icymist]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001932865_mcderm19.html


Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.

GOP legislators, McDermott join forces on Africa-trade bill

By Alex Fryer
Seattle Times Washington bureau

WASHINGTON — It was rare sight on Capitol Hill: Republican lawmakers publicly embracing legislation originally authored by Rep. Jim McDermott.
Some of the most conservative members of Congress joined the Seattle Democrat and singer/humanitarian Bono yesterday to stump for a free-trade bill with Africa that McDermott first drafted in 1997.

"It's hard for some people to believe that Jim and I speak to each other, let alone support one another on a particular issue," said Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., who threw his support behind McDermott's signature issue: the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Since it became law in 2000, AGOA has created an estimated 150,000 jobs and brought $340 million in foreign investment to the poorest nations in sub-Saharan Africa. The act is credited with establishing a burgeoning apparel industry by lowering tariffs on African-made clothing.

McDermott, who has been visiting Africa since the early 1960s, is known in some diplomatic circles as the "father of AGOA."

(more)

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

1. Maybe we could get Bono...

...to stump for repeal of the PATRIOT Act.