US government extends AGOA despite threats to exclude SA – SABC News
The United States (US) government has extended the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) despite threats to exclude South Africa from the preferential trade programme.
President Donald Trump has now signed it into law.
The two-year extension passed Congress without substantive policy changes, giving a sense of continuity for exporters across the African continent.
This comes after months of delays and questions about the future of the trade programme.
At times it seemed like the Trump administration was ready to scrap the African Growth and Opportunity Act or significantly curtail the programme and potentially exclude certain countries from being part of it.
South Africa’s inclusion in AGOA seemed in jeopardy.
After Trump’s return to the White House, a group of congressmen wrote a letter to the President, urging him to bar Pretoria from the programme.
Last December, the US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said he was “open” to “different treatment” for South Africa, calling the country a “unique problem”, signalling possible exclusion.
But the Senate, and then the House of Representatives this week, passed an extension running through to the end of December 2028.
Trump has now signed it into law, and lawmakers who have championed the extension have welcomed the news.
Republican Representative for Missouri’s 8th Congressional District, Congressman Jason Smith, says, “For over two decades, the African Growth and Opportunity Act has been the foundation of America’s trade relationship with the nations of sub-Saharan Africa. AGOA promotes greater economic stability and opportunity across Africa while advancing America’s strategic and national security interests, including access to critical minerals and more secure supply chains.”
Despite threatening substantial changes to AGOA, the Trump administration appeared to lack the bandwidth to make them.
Other trade disputes with China, and more recently Canada, have taken up much of the administration’s limited time.
AGOA was established in the year 2000, giving countries across Africa duty-free access to the American market – as a way to promote economic growth in Africa and boost trade between the US and the Continent.
The Trump administration reportedly still wants to look at ways to change the US’ trade relationship with Africa.
But with this extension in place, the program-and the countries covered by it-will effectively be safeguarded through most of Donald Trump’s current and final term in office.