Keywords: USA, Africa, US-Africa Summit, Africa Economic Growth and Trade Opportunities Act, AFRICOM "I am proud to announce that next year I intend to invite the heads of State and Government of sub-Saharan Africa to the United States for a summit that will help usher in a new chapter in US - African relations," said US President Barack Obama. Obama at the University of Cape Town, where he spoke on June 30, 2013, during his second trip to Africa (after 2009) .1 In international practice, the idea of convening such a forum was neither new nor original in itself. Japan has regularly held high - level meetings with African leaders since 1993, and China and the European Union since 2000. All these years, the White House has not felt the need for collective communication with African leaders. The decision to borrow someone else's experience showed that in 2013 such a need appeared. What is the reason? Let's just say that the United States has not been passive in Africa in previous decades. However, after Africa ceased to be an object of confrontation in the Cold War, US interest in this continent initially lost its strategic acuteness. But it didn't last long. PRESIDENTS B. CLINTON AND J. W. BUSH-TURNING TO AFRICA A new turn of the United States towards Africa was outlined in the mid-90s of the last century under President B. Clinton. In Bush's Africa policy, continuity was combined with increased activism and major innovations. The African Economic Growth and Trade Opportunities Act (AGOA), passed in May 2001, still serves as one of the main instruments of US policy in the region. The law provides for the granting of trade preferences to sub-Saharan African countries (hereinafter referred to as SSA), provided that they meet the political and economic criteria established by the United States, and this compliance is subject to annual audit and confirmation at the level of the US President. In order to be included in the "list of the Law", the SSA countries must not only ... Read more