US-Africa program (AGOA) should be extended through 2041, Senate Democrat says, proposes legislation [Download]
![US-Africa program (AGOA) should be extended through 2041, Senate Democrat says, proposes legislation [Download]](https://agoa.info/images/articles/16379/_thumb2/chriscoonsrenewalagoa.jpg "US-Africa program (AGOA) should be extended through 2041, Senate Democrat says, proposes legislation [Download]")
A trade program that grants exports from qualifying African countries duty-free access to the U.S. market should be extended by 16 years, said Democratic Senator Chris Coons, a leading voice on U.S.-Africa policy.
Talks are underway for the renewal of the two-decade-old African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which is due to expire in 2025.
African countries want a 10-year renewal of the pact ahead of the 2024 U.S. election. President Joe Biden's administration is also seeking the program's reauthorization but has called for certain reforms.
Coons, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has sponsored a bill that seeks to integrate AGOA and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which includes the majority of African nations.
According to a draft version of the bill exclusively obtained by Reuters, the program would maintain benefits for countries as they grow wealthier, allowing them to remain until they are determined to be high-income for five years, instead of removing them if they reach that threshold for a single year.
"My AGOA Renewal Act ( download the draft Bill / discussion draft HERE) would extend this program, incentivizing investments that will create jobs, bolster economic development, and strengthen our standing in the region," Coons said in a statement.
Spokespeople for Senator Ben Cardin, the committee's chairman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
James Risch, the panel's top Republican, wrote in a letter to Biden administration officials on Thursday that he supports the early reauthorization of the program, but wants to see changes to its eligibility criteria and other modifications.
More than $10 billion worth of African exports entered the United States duty-free under the program in 2022. The pact has bipartisan support in Washington, but there are divisions on how to update it.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Saturday that AGOA should aim to boost usage of the program by countries that qualify, though she did not give details on how it would do so.
American business groups have said they need certainty over AGOA, so that African countries are able to take advantage of a global push to reduce dependence on Chinese manufacturing.
Download a copy of the draft Bill (discussion draft) HERE
Read related news articles
South Africa’s AGOA forum: Crafting future pathways for US-Africa trade partnership
Ultimately the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) could be extended by 16 years, that means until 2041, indicating its importance for strengthening Africa’s trade and economic cooperation with United States. That was, in fact, the main focus during Johannesburg’s early November forum that brought together more than 30 trade ministers, astute investors plus representatives from the regional economic blocs and the African Union. At...
14 November 2023
Africa-US trade: AGOA expires in 2025 - what has it achieved in 23 years?
African governments are seeking an extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) beyond 2025. The law was enacted in 2000 to “encourage increased trade and investment between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa”. We asked David Luke, who specialises in African trade policy and trade negotiations, what benefits Agoa has brought for qualifying African countries and how it can...
12 November 2023
US Senator Chris Coons proposes AGOA extension by 16 years, immediate review of SA’s AGOA eligibility
Powerful US Democratic Party Senator Chris Coons is circulating a discussion draft of a Bill to renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) for 16 years that would also require an immediate “out-of-cycle” review of South Africa’s eligibility for Agoa. That could lead to South Africa being removed next year from the programme, which has provided considerable benefits to SA exporters to the US of cars, fruits and wine, in...
07 November 2023
AGOA extension crucial for Ghana’s industrialisation
The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei is supporting the push for the extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to enhance trade between Ghana and the US. A United States Trade Act enacted on 18 May 2000 as Public Law 106 of the 200th Congress, the AGOA legislation has been renewed on different occasions, most recently in 2015, when its period of validity was extended to September 2025. The...
06 November 2023
AGOA: US vows to support regional integration
The United States says it is committed to supporting regional integration in Africa, seeing it as essential for the continent's economic development and prosperity. At a conference on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) in Johannesburg, US officials said they were backing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), even though there will be variations on country specific trading arrangements. Agoa is a trade agreement...
04 November 2023
US committed to ‘seamless’ AGOA renewal, USTR Tai says
The US aims to ensure that its preferential trade pact with Africa is replaced without interruption when it expires in two-year’s time, while bringing it up to date. “We want to make sure that as of Sept. 30, 2025, that there will be another Agoa that will pick up from this one,” said US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, referring to the African Growth and Opportunity Act. “It is a seamless renewal that we’re...
03 November 2023
US president Biden wants to improve US-Africa trade programme, not just renew it - Blinken
President Joe Biden's administration wants to work with Congress to improve the United States' flagship trade programme with Africa, not just renew it without changes, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday. First launched in 2000, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) grants exports from qualifying African countries duty-free access to the United States - the world's largest consumer market. It is due to...
03 November 2023
US faces tricky questions with African trade group
As the United States seeks to deepen its relationships with African nations and counter the influence of rivals like Russia and China, it confronts a tricky question: How does it respond when countries do things that run afoul of Washington’s stated commitment to democracy and human rights? That tension hung over a major trade conference between the U.S. and African countries that started in Johannesburg this week, after President Biden...
03 November 2023
AGOA needs at least 10-year extension, AU, ministers, say
Africa wants the US Congress to renew its flagship trade programme for the continent for at least 10 years, the African Union’s top trade official said on Thursday, adding that any modifications to the initiative should only be considered later. Speaking at the start of three days of meetings of African trade ministers and US officials, AU Trade Commissioner Albert Muchanga also said the United States will not be granted tariff...
02 November 2023
Africa pushes for three-year AGOA reviews
African trade ministers, including South Africa’s, are pushing for the annual eligibility reviews of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) to be conducted every three years instead of annually to allow for predictability and certainty for investors. This is after four beneficiary countries, Uganda, Niger, the Central African Republic and Gabon, were kicked out of the trade programme on the eve of the forum’s annual summit in...
02 November 2023
