PRESIDENT OBAMA: The current AGOA structure expires in 2015.
It is my hope that we get it renewed.
Now, what I mentioned to President Zuma today, and I said this at a press conference, is
that we will have to engage in some negotiations to find ways to both improve what we're currently
doing, but also to reflect on the fact that South Africa is becoming more and more successful,
and that U.S. businesses -- in order for me to get it through Congress in the United States,
U.S. businesses have to feel as if they're getting a level playing field relative to,
for example, some of the European companies who are able to operate here -- because there's
a free trade agreement between Europe and the United States.
But I'm confident that with good negotiations, that we should be able to get it done.
The broader point I want to make, though, is that the future is going to be in creating
value here in Africa and making sure then that Southeast Asia and China and Turkey,
and all these other places around the world that everybody is starting to see the benefits
of global trade patterns.
And Africa cannot just be a source of raw materials for somebody else.
It has to be a source of the kinds of products and services and imagination that is going
to be the future of the 21st century.