The law establishes the annual U.S.-Sub-Saharan Africa Economic Cooperation Forum (known as the AGOA Forum) to promote high-level dialogue on trade and investment issues. At the heart of AGOA are important trade preferences that, together with those of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), allow virtually all marketable goods produced in AGOA-enabled countries to enter the U.S. market duty-free. Trade in Malawi is being liberalized, with import and export licensing required for very few products that impact safety, health, food self-sufficiency and the protection of the infant industry. Since independence, Malawi has signed bilateral, regional and multilateral trade agreements with other countries with the aim of improving market access for Malawian exports. Malawi is a signatory and beneficiary of a number of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements. These include the African Free Trade Area, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Trade Protocol, the Cotonou Agreement between the European Union (EU) and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, and the United States-Africa-Africa Growth Opportunities Initiative (US-AGOA) for concessional exports to the US market. Malawi has also signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, but has not yet ratified it. Malawi has also concluded bilateral agreements with South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malaysia, Mozambique, India and China, as well as a customs agreement with Botswana. Other agreements with Zambia and Tanzania are currently under consideration. These, along with other initiatives such as the Growth Triangle and the Spatial Development Initiative, offer significant opportunities to increase trade and investment in the region and stimulate growth. The African Free Trade Area (AFTZ) is a free trade area announced at the EAC-SADC-COMESA Summit on 22 October 2008 by the heads of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC). The African Free Trade Area is also referred to as the African Free Trade Area in some official documents and press releases.
Several countries in the region have signed bilateral agreements or are in the process of negotiating bilateral agreements. Earlier this year, Mozambique and South Africa agreed on a visa waiver as part of a trade deal. A trade agreement is a formal agreement (contract) between two or more countries on the treatment of goods and services to be supplied from one country to another and vice versa. The scope of trade agreements covers a variety of issues, namely: Like many bilateral trade agreements, the Mozambique-Zimbabwe agreement does not interfere with obligations under the SADC trade protocol. .