Contribution of US imports from Africa overlooked - US ambassador

US: The US does not get enough credit in discussions on African poverty for the volume of trade it does with the continent, the US ambassador to Ireland, James Kenny, said yesterday.

Speaking before an address to the American Chamber of Commerce in Dublin, Mr Kenny bemoaned the lack of recognition the US gets for the goods it imports from African countries.

He said there are differences of emphasis in "how everyone counts things" in the debate on driving change in Africa.

Figures from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis show that the US imported goods worth $18.4 billion (€15.5 billion) from African countries in the first four months of this year. This marks a significant increase on the $13 billion in African imports recorded at the same stage of 2004.

It is, however, dwarfed by the $113 billion in goods imported from Europe by the US in the four months to the end of April, 2005.

"It would be great to see the African Union develop like the EU," said Mr Kenny. He highlighted the progress made by the Republic's economy over recent decades as an example of what can be achieved.

The biggest obstacle to making this kind of advance in Africa is self-belief, according to Mr Kenny. African people need "elected officials who care about their country", he added.

When asked whether or not the US allocates sufficient aid to Africa, Mr Kenny said that almost two-thirds of the $248 billion donated to charity by US private citizens last year went to Africa.

For its part, the US government will give Africa "an extreme amount of attention" over the next few years, Mr Kenny said. He acknowledged that this attention, which includes a doubling of US aid to Africa by 2010, will however come "with strings", including evidence of freedom and democracy.

"Our president is very, very concerned about Africa," said Mr Kenny. He pointed out that no world leader had ever allocated as much money to the HIV/Aids crisis as President Bush.