| For over a decade, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) program has become the cornerstone of the trade agreement between the United States and Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). In the AGOA legislation, the United States Congress mandated the president to open the American market to eligible Sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries under a set of conditions. To be eligible to the AGOA program, SSA country should adhere to the market economy, the rule of law, political pluralism, elimination of barriers to United States trade and investment, economic policies to reduce poverty, combating corruption and bribery, protection of internationally recognized worker rights, not engaging in activities that undermine United States national security or foreign policy interests, and not engage in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights or provide support for acts of international terrorism and cooperates in international efforts to eliminate human rights violations and terrorist activities.;Since its inception in 2001, the program has come under scrutiny by scholars who examined the causes of its continuous trade flows' regression. Early studies stigmatized critics on the absence of economic reforms, corruption, bad governance, poverty and HIV/Aid pandemic as causes of low trade flows. As these conditions improved over time without positive effects on the overall trade operations, analysis started shifting attention on other paradigms like the enduring burden of colonial legacy on SSA countries as a plausible explanation of the problem posed by the program. Proponents of this view argued that enduring commercial relationships dated from colonial past favored SSA's market orientation toward Europe to the disadvantage of the U.S. despite the preferential trade agreement offered by the later.;The colonial legacy inherited from the British, the French and the Portuguese was explored in-depth to evaluate its effects on the trade between the United States and SSA under AGOA program using qualitative multiple case study inquiry. SSA countries were grouped under their former colonial powers to learn how their respective colonial history influences their trade with the United States. Primary data was drawn using online open-ended questions administrated to participants selected or referred by the diplomatic mission representatives of Mauritius to the United States in Washington DC, the African Caribbean Political Action Committee (ACPAC), and the African National Chamber of Commerce (ANCOC). More than one site for primary data collection was chosen because two sites were able to yield the findings with confidence than those from a single-site study. Also, more than one site provided the opportunity to maximize the representation of SSA countries in each sample cluster. Secondary data was gained through U.S. government documents, statements of AGOA, internet sources, scholarly journals, articles, and books as part of documentation data collection instrument. Analysis of finding helped to explore the impact of language, education and trade direction as colonial legacy's paradigms on the AGOA program. The conclusion and recommendations drawn from data analysis sought to contribute to the body of knowledge by the affirmation or development of the theory of the effect of the colonial legacy which could be generalized or transferred to other settings. |
