The Foreign Service Journal, June 2023

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2023 37 Scott Eisner is president of the U.S.-Africa Business Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. A former member of the U.S. Trade Representative’s Trade Advisory Committee on Africa, he currently serves on the advisory board for City Year South Africa, the Africa Leadership Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson Center Africa Program Advisory Council. U.S. business ties to Africa are poised for takeoff, but success will depend on commercial diplomacy getting a boost. BY SCOTT E I SNER T he 2022 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit and Business Forum, bringing U.S. and African business executives, policy- makers, and heads of state together after almost a decade, showed the world that the United States sees Africa as an equal partner with a shared vision. This second summit not only revived and deepened the great expec- tations inspired by its predecessor; the astounding convening power from the public and private sectors on display at the sum- mit marks it as a turning point. Regaining Momentum Following that first summit, a new level of interest in African markets emerged from corporate America. Iconic brands like GE, IBM, John Deere, and Caterpillar, to name a few, began to see their bottom lines grow upon expanding into Africa’s competitive business landscape. At last, the U.S. had decided to engage African markets on the terms they wanted to discuss (i.e., investment, job creation, and economic growth) and was at the top of its game regarding African relations. As a result, the business community began to understand the continent in new terms, and competitors fromAsia, the Middle East, and Europe saw us in a new light. But just as we were beginning to hit our stride with the announcement of negotiations over a free trade agreement with ON U.S. & AFRICA: TOWARD PARTNERSHIPS FOCUS THE BUSINESS OF DIPLOMACY PRIORITIZING THE U.S.-AFRICA COMMERCIAL AGENDA