The United States Government is actively engaged in providing trade capacity building technical assistance designed to help the member countries of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) take full advantage of their benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and participate effectively in the ongoing work of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The member countries of SACU had access to more than $34 million in U.S. trade capacity building assistance for sub-Saharan Africa in fiscal year 2002.

More than $5.5 million was through specific bilateral trade-related technical assistance initiatives, and SACU countries also benefitted from $28.2 million through programs for the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The United States is the largest single country donor of trade capacity. Total U.S. funding for trade capacity building activities was $761 million in FY 2003, up from $369 million in 1999.