By Enyichukwu Enemanna
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is in support of one-year extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), trade initiative with sub-Saharan Africa that expires on Tuesday, White House official said on Monday.
Trump since returning to office in January had not publicly taken a position on the trade deal, a law first passed in 2000 to provide duty-free access to the U.S. market for thousands of African products.
Despite broad bipartisan support for renewing AGOA, which supporters say helps diversify U.S. supply chains and counter Chinese influence in Africa, the law’s prospects for extension before it lapses are deeply uncertain.
African governments and investors have been lobbying in recent weeks for a one- or two-year extension after efforts to secure a longer-term renewal did not make it to a vote in Congress.
AGOA is credited with supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs in more than 30 eligible countries.
Its impact has however been challenged by the bilateral tariffs Trump introduced in August, which exposed products once exported duty-free under AGOA to U.S. import taxes of between 10% and 30%.
