By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Uganda’s President has downplayed the decision of the United States to expel his country from a major trade deal, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), urging citizens of the East African country “not to be over-concerned”.
“Some of these actors in the Western world overestimate themselves and underestimate the freedom fighters of Africa,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.
US President, Joe Biden had last week announced that Uganda and three other countries would be dropped from AGOA, after it had previously hinted that Washington might take such action in response to Uganda’s tough new anti-homosexuality law.
Introduced in 2000, AGOA gives eligible sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to the US for more than 1,800 products.
Under this deal, Uganda has been exporting goods, like coffee and textiles, to the United States for years without paying any import tax.
However, the US is not one of Uganda’s main export markets so the expulsion is unlikely to cause too much economic distress.
Ahead of the 20th AGOA forum in South Africa last week, Mr Biden revealed plans to expel Uganda, Gabon, Niger and the Central African Republic (CAR).
He said that the removal of the CAR and Uganda from the programme was due to “gross violations of internationally recognised human rights” by their governments.
The CAR is working closely with mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group, who have been accused of killing civilians and other abuses.
Niger and Gabon – both of which are currently under military rule following coups – are ineligible for AGOA because they “have not established, or are not making continual progress toward establishing the protection of political pluralism and the rule of law”, the President said.
In his statement on Sunday, President Yoweri Museveni continued: “As far as Uganda is concerned, we have the capacity to achieve our growth and transformation targets, even if some of the actors do not support us.”
