AGOA: Washington prepares to remove two African countries
· BehindLines newsroom
The United States plans to drop both Rwanda and South Africa out of the AGOA trade programme as of 1 January 2027. According to a 2 November statement from US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Donald Trump has told Congress and both governments about this plan. The announcement therefore concerns a future date: it does not record an exit that has already taken effect.
The programme lets eligible African countries export thousands of products to the US market duty-free. The announced measure concerns this preferential treatment. The US statement details neither the goods affected nor the duties that would apply after removal, so no single rate for the two countries' exports can be inferred from it.
Washington says it based its position on the annual review of eligibility criteria. For both countries, the administration cites obstacles to American trade and investment, along with national security and foreign policy concerns. It also mentions corruption in South Africa. For Rwanda, it cites in particular the rule of law, political pluralism, and human and workers' rights. These are the grounds put forward by US authorities.
In its 3 November response, relayed by the government agency SAnews, South Africa’s Trade Minister Parks Tau regrets that Washington is raising issues absent from the negotiations begun in 2025. Pretoria says it is assessing the consequences with the industries concerned, stressing that they will vary by sector.
The South African government estimates that about 10% of its exports to the United States benefited from AGOA in 2025, against 28% in 2024. It puts these sales at nearly $1,700 million in 2025, against $4,000 million a year earlier. These figures describe past trade, not the future cost of removal. Tau promises support for affected sectors; the government also announces accelerated diversification of its markets.