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Africa: Uncertainties Mount as African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Deadline Nears
allAfrica, 6 September 2025
With the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) that has anchored U.S-Africa relations since 2000 set to expire on September 30, prospects for extension or renewal grow… Read more »
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Africa: We Ask Congress to Step Up NOW before Toppling Investments from Tanzania to Togo to Haiti
allAfrica, 5 September 2025
The global trade landscape is full of competing countdown clocks that are quietly challenging U.S. competitiveness as they tick down. In the chaos of today's trade environment,… Read more »
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Africa: Strategic Talks for AGOA Renewal
Embassy of Madagascar / Facebook, 28 August 2025
The African Union Mission to the U.S. convened a critical strategic workshop on enhancing diplomatic advocacy for the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the… Read more »
Last Ditch Push As U.S.-Africa Trade Pact AGOA Expiry Nears
With the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) that has anchored U.S-Africa relations since 2000 set to expire on September 30, prospects for extension or renewal grow increasingly slim. Nonetheless, supporters of the trade pact hold out hope that a compromise might still be attainable. Dr. Bob Wekesa from the African Centre for the Study of the United States at Wits University in South Africa, in an AllAfrica guest column outlines three possible scenarios.
Among those lobbying Congress to act are African Ambassadors in Washington, DC. The potential expiration of the legislation "is an immediate threat to millions of dollars in investment and hundreds of thousands of livelihoods across Africa and in the United States," Solo Andry Lantosoa Rakotomalala, Madagascar's Ambassador to the United States, told a workshop convened by the African Diplomatic.
"We simply cannot afford to overlook an entire continent by looking away and running out the clock," writes Beth Hughes from the American Apparel & Footwear Association, one of several business organizations pressing for renewal.
Factories like this one where workers are sewing apparel in Maseru, Lesotho, operated by Afri-Expo Textiles - a 100% locally owned manufacturing factory, would likely have to reduce employment or shut down if the U.S. duty-free trade pact AGOA expires on September 30, 2025.
InFocus
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The administration of U.S President Donald Trump is easing its proposed tariffs on several African nations, with Lesotho being the biggest beneficiary of the administration's rethink. In April, the country was stunned by an announcement that the U.S. would increase tariff charges on its imports by up to 50% - the highest in the world.
For several other countries, however, charges of up to 30% will kick in on imports in the coming days, including South Africa, with which President
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Since returning to office, U.S. President Donald Trump has cut key aid to Africa and imposed new tariffs on exports, raising fears of another setback with the expiration of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
In 2000, former President Bill Clinton established AGOA to promote economic development in sub-Saharan Africa. AGOA granted duty-free access to the U.S. market for thousands of African products,
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With the US threatening to sever vital trade ties, South African businesses are on edge. Should Africa's most industrialized economy prepare for a major economic and trade shake-up?
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