Foreign pool report #2 - quotes

Hello again all,

Some quotes from the African leaders and some from Trump and Jamieson Greer during the Q&A at the end. As ever, please check against the tape/livestream for clarification.

Gabon - President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema

‘We are not poor countries. We are rich when it comes to raw materials, but we need partners. That is our wish.’

‘We have focused on transparency. We have worked on agreements with the EU and wanted to review them because they weren’t win/win opportunities.’

President Nguema said that Gabon’s market was ‘open’ and that they wanted to process manganese - a key raw material in batteries and stainless steel - locally so as to combat youth unemployment and curb emigration abroad: ‘We also want our raw materials to be processed in our countries - to help youth unemployment and to stop them from leaving and migrating elsewhere.’

He said that piracy in the Gulf of Guinea is an issue and that he wanted US equipment to help combat it: ‘You said you had the best equipment and that’s what we would like to have. We can’t do it alone. We need a reliable and strong partner, one that takes real action. We need to be pragmatic and that’s what you are.’

Asked whether Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, he said he thinks that he does ‘for all the things he’s done’.

GUINEA-BISSAU - President Umaro Sissoco Embaló

President Embaló said Guinea-Bissau is a ‘peaceful country who is a small country but a great state. We have been following your dynamics and you can count on Guinea Bissau.’

LIBERIA - President Joseph Nyuma Boakai

President Boakai spoke to the long history between the US and Liberia and said ‘Liberia is a long time friend of the US and we believe in your Make America Great Again policy.’

He added ‘Liberia has a lot of minerals, and one other thing we ask as good friends for a long time is the opportunity to do a survey of minerals.’ ‘We want to encourage American involvement in the investment in Liberia. I would like to see that happen.’

MAURITANIA - President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani

President Ghazouani spoke first and said ‘Trump is sending a generous message to Africa, and we receive this message. We are delighted to see President Trump’s commitment to our continent.’

Like the other leaders, he praised POTUS for his peace efforts in DRC/Rwanda, Israel/Iran and elsewhere. On his own country, he said Mauritania was ‘a small country depending on the criteria you apply. It’s a small country in terms of population…and theinfluence it has around the world. But it’s a great country in terms of strategic position - it’s what links northern and subsaharan Africa. But we have a great deal of resources and a lot of opportunities to offer in terms of investment.’

SENEGAL - President Bassirou Diomaye Faye

President Faye was perhaps the most forthcoming with his praise for POTUS, saying of the DRC/Rwanda conflict ‘thankfully you were there to put an end to this 30 year war.’

‘As you’ve seen, you can only do business when there is peace and security and you build peace everywhere in the world.’

He said ‘I want to reassure all American investors about our countries political stability.’ He then raised 2 investment opportunities for American businesses, one in conjunction with the USGS centres around oil and gas. The other is to start a tech city in Senegal which would be open to US businesses and open to Africa. President Faye ended by praising POTUS’ golf skills saying ’golf requires concentration and precision, perhaps an investment could be made in a golf course in Senegal.’

At the Q&A, Trump said there were no plans to put tariffs on those countries present at the meeting, saying that they were all his friends now.

Your pooler asked about the prospect of the US extending the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) - a trade program which allows duty-free access to the US market for thousands of sub-Saharan African products which is set to expire in September. President Trump initially said ‘we’ll take a look at that’ before Jamieson Greer added ‘That's up to Congress to take a first crack at. We know that program has been in place for about 20 years, and at the end result of that, we see a lot of other countries operating in Africa. We still see a lot of tariff and non tariff barriers in Africa. So I think anything any discussion about that act, would also have to think about how we address those kinds of barriers.’

That’s it from me, have a great rest of your day!

Fraser

Sent from my iPhone