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TEXT OF REMARKS

AGOA ROUNDTABLE

MONTEREY, MEXICO

MARCH 22, 2002

WILSON F. HUNT, JR.

WILSON HUNT INTERNATIONAL LTD.

My company is a manufacturer and distributor of athletic equipment and apparel. We do most of our manufacturing in Asia and the Caribbean basin.  We distribute baseball, football, basketball uniforms and equipment primarily in North America.

I went to Ethiopia in 1999 with a little left over Peace Corps idealism. For thirty years since serving in Peace Corps in Ethiopia, I had had a dream of starting a factory there to create jobs.  Major apparel manufacturing export companies would not have considered locating a factory in Ethiopia in 1999.  If you compare the infrastructure, local availability of materials and the experience of the work force, and proximity to markets, executives with major corporations could not justify shifting manufacturing from Asia, South or Central America to Ethiopia or most other countries in Africa.  My company went ahead for reasons of the heart not for reasons based on sound business practice.

I was fortunate enough to meet an Ethiopian with whom we formed a joint venture.  He built the factory, and he hired and trained workers. My company provided technical assistance as well as materials – fabric, thread, elastic, buttons, zippers, labels, etc which we shipped from Asia. We ship these materials from Taiwan to Djibouti and overland from Djibouti to Addis Ababa by truck. We do the cutting, sewing, and fabrication in Addis Ababa.  We then ship the finished apparel back to Djibouti by truck and then by vessel to New York and eventually on to Chicago. This process takes 6-7 months, start to finish. If I had to report to a board of directors or answer to stockholders when we started this project, it would never have gotten off the ground.  I own 100% of my company stock so we were able to do it.  In late 2000 we began manufacturing football, baseball and basketball uniforms in Ethiopia.

Now, since 1999, two things have changed.

1.  The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act allows us to import apparel from Ethiopia duty and quota free.  Under a special provision of AGOA we can use material produced in a third country and still qualify for duty and quota free treatment.  

These changes made a big difference.  There are now good, solid, dollars and cents business reasons for investing and manufacturing in Ethiopia. Our Ethiopian manufacturing operation is the most profitable that we have anywhere in the world.  It is more profitable than our manufacturing in Asia or the Caribbean.  Ethiopia in 2002 is a viable option for investment and manufacturing. Today I could justify investment there to stockholders or a board of directors.

My company will soon undertake the second phase of this project.  We plan to build a knitting and dying mill in Ethiopia so we no longer need to import fabric from Asia.  We have already begun working with local manufacturing facilities to improve the quality of their production so that we will soon be able to use locally produced thread, elastic, and packing materials.  This takes time for us and we are the first in Ethiopia. I hope that our Congress and president see fit to extend AGOA beyond 2004 so that African countries truly have an opportunity to develop the policies and infrastructure necessary to attract investment.

African countries for their part need to do what they can to improve the investment climate.  Resources may be limited making infrastructure improvements difficult but it doesn’t cost anything to reduce regulations, remove restrictions and beaurocratic red tape and make it easier to do business and invest in Africa. Ethiopia has taken major strides, and it has made a big difference to us.

African countries also need to do some image building. Africa continues to have a negative image in the American business community.  For example, I am Chairman of the Ethio-American Trade and Investment Council, and we plan to publicize the positive facts that Ethiopia has low labor costs, a very low crime rate, low incidences of corruption, and an aggressive entrepreneurial class despite the fact that geographically Ethiopia is situated in one of the least advantageous locations in Africa.  Being landlocked it is still very accessible to world markets.  If we compare the cost and time required to ship a shirt from Thailand to New York and Addis Ababa to New York, it costs $.07 and takes 27 days from Bangkok to New York and costs $.11 and takes 32 days from Addis Ababa to New York.  Not really a significant difference in either time or cost.

I have one final point.  I have been doing business in Asia for 30 years. During that time Asia has attracted a large portion of the capital flow from the industrialized countries.  That investment and the ensuing technology transfer have generated tremendous growth in many of the Asian economies. With that economic development there has been a tremendous improvement not only in the quality of life and the level of education, but it has also led to increased personal freedom and the rise of democratic institutions.  There is no better example of why the best foreign aid is free trade.  There can be no question that The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act is an important step in helping African countries become important trading partners with the United States.  Again, I hope that all provisions of this Act are extended beyond 2004.