Agoa.info - African Growth and Opportunity Act
TRALAC - Trade Law Centre
You are here: Home/News/Article/Bipartisan lawmakers in Congress are calling for the renewal of AGOA

Bipartisan lawmakers in Congress are calling for the renewal of AGOA

Bipartisan lawmakers in Congress are calling for the renewal of AGOA
Published date:
Tuesday, 13 December 2022
Author:
Nancy Vu
Source:

 As President Joe Biden hosts nearly 50 African leaders in a summit aiming to boost U.S.-Africa relations, one prominent issue has circulated across the Hill: the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which is set to expire in 2025. 

What is it? The 22-year-old program works to provide eligible sub-Saharan African nations with additional duty-free access to more than 1,800 designated products, with the aim of assisting the countries and easing economic relations between the U.S. and Africa. 

Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said he met with a number of key officials on AGOA, and that he's pushing "very hard for this" while pledging to work with the officials between now and 2025.

Why discuss now? Although 2025 is a little more than two years away, renewal of this program will be largely left up to Congress — which has a habit of addressing priorities at the last minute. But this isn't an issue that Congress and the White House can neglect: With China strengthening their influence on the continent, U.S. officials are emphasizing the need to further invest in African countries. 

"Working closely with Congress, the U.S. will commit $55 billion to Africa over the course of the next three years across a wide range of sectors to tackle the core challenges of our time," national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday. "These commitments build on the United States’ longstanding leadership and partnership in development, economic growth, health and security in Africa over the past three decades."

Efforts by the Biden administration were applauded by Senate Subcommittee Chair on Africa and Global Health Policy Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) in a statement — while he also urged for an extension of AGOA "without delay." 

The $55 billion investment was further welcomed by ranking member Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who said it "sounds like an encouraging first step." 

"The money with that you spend in Africa returns itself because they have natural resources," Rounds told POLITICO. "They have new democracies that are really working hard. And this is an area where, if we can stabilize those countries, it eliminates more areas where terrorism might otherwise begin."

Read related news articles

US fashion brands urge early renewal of AGOA

US fashion companies are calling for the early renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a trade program that allows thousands of African products to enter the United States duty-free. They argue that a longer-term arrangement would not only benefit African economies but also boost investment in the region. The AGOA was first enacted in 2000 and is currently set to expire in 2025. However, US officials have indicated that the...

31 July 2023

Rhetoric aside, the US needs South Africa inside the AGOA tent, not outside

The South African government sent a senior ministerial delegation to the US to make its case for keeping South Africa as a beneficiary of its trade preferences under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Most commentators focus on the benefits of Agoa to South Africa, but there are good reasons that it is very much in America’s interests to keep South Africa as a trading partner and within its sphere of influence through Agoa...

27 July 2023

South Africa asks US for early AGOA extension

South Africa has asked the US to consider an early extension to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), saying this would provide certainty for investors and encourage them to commit additional investment on the continent. Trade, industry & competition minister Ebrahim Patel said the expeditious renewal trade agreement, which gives SA and other sub-Saharan African countries preferential access to US markets, would be beneficial not...

25 July 2023

American Apparel and Footwear Association: Renew AGOA for 10 years, restore Ethiopia's benefits in 2024

The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) recently urged the office of the US trade representative (USTR) to renew the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) this year for at least another 10 years—or maybe longer—so that US companies will have the necessary certainty and timeframe they need to grow a vertical, responsible and competitive industry in Africa up to and beyond 2025. AAFA vice president for trade and customs...

10 July 2023

South Africa's official opposition DA party urges US legislators to keep SA in AGOA trade pact

The DA has urged US legislators to keep SA as a member of a trade pact that gives African countries preferential access to US markets, saying its removal will have unintended consequences for both countries. This comes ahead of the US government’s virtual hearings, starting on July 24, when 35 sub-Saharan countries, including SA, are expected to make oral representations in a bid to retain trade benefits under the African Growth and...

09 July 2023

Warning shot fired — top US congressmen urge Biden to move AGOA forum away from South Africa

Powerful leaders of the US Congress have called on the Biden administration to move this year’s Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) forum from South Africa to another African country because of South Africa’s perceived support of Russia in its war against Ukraine.  The letter from top legislators of both the Democratic and Republican parties is the first clear and concrete sign of possible US retaliation to Pretoria’s stance...

12 June 2023

'How the US can support the African trade that matters for the continent’s goal of economic transformation'

Trade relations between the US and Africa have centred on Congress’s ‘Africa Growth and Opportunities Act’ (AGOA) since 2000, designed to foster the continent’s economic development and prosperity via preferential access to American markets. Yet in the last decade African trade with the United States has stagnated at much the same levels as it was when the Act was passed. David Luke and Jamie Macleod consider how...

04 June 2023

** AGOA eligibility review 2023 (for year 2024): Timelines of hearings and request for comments ** [Deadline written submissions 7 July]

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is announcing the initiation of the annual review of the eligibility of sub-Saharan African countries to receive the benefits of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The AGOA Implementation Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff Committee (AGOA Subcommittee) is requesting written public comments for this review and will conduct a virtual public hearing on this matter. In...

16 May 2023

Recalibrating US economic engagement with Africa

Nearly 23 years since the United States established the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, the continent it was created for no longer exists. In the last two decades, there have been three major shifts that have worked together to cultivate a new Africa—an Africa that requires a different approach to trade and economic investment. First, there are China’s development initiatives, which have resulted in roads, rails, bridges, and...

18 April 2023

Kenya: Manufacturers push for 15-year AGOA extension

Kenyan manufacturers have asked the Trade ministry to request Washington to extend the existing duty- and quota-free access to the expansive US market window for another 15 years as the two countries prepare for talks over a long-term bilateral trade deal. The Kenya Association of Manufacturers, the sector lobby, argues that uncertainty over the more than two decades-Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) deal, which expires in two years, is...

02 March 2023

AGOA time: As 2025 approaches, opportunities for improvements eyed

Economic integration efforts underway in Africa and new ideas about decades-old U.S. trade policy could provide a host of options for bolstering Washington’s cornerstone trade policy program with sub-Saharan African countries, analysts and former senior officials tell Inside U.S. Trade. The African Growth and Opportunity Act, first signed into law in 2000, “has done more than people give it credit for, but it has not done nearly enough...

30 January 2023

You are here: Home/News/Article/Bipartisan lawmakers in Congress are calling for the renewal of AGOA