The US cut Ethiopia, Mali, and Guinea off from a duty-free trade program on Saturday, as promised by President Joe Biden in response to alleged human rights breaches and recent coups.
The US Trade Representative’s office announced in a statement that “the United States today terminated Ethiopia, Mali, and Guinea from the AGOA trade preference program due to actions taken by each of their countries in violation of the AGOA Statute.”
Due to alleged human rights violations in the Tigray region, Biden said in November that Ethiopia would be cut off from the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) duty-free trading regime, while Mali and Guinea would be targeted due to recent coups.
Ethiopia’s textile industry, which supplies global fashion brands, and the country’s nascent hopes of becoming a light manufacturing hub are both threatened by the benefit suspension. It also adds to the strain on an economy already strained by the conflict, the coronavirus outbreak, and high inflation.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is deeply concerned by the unconstitutional change in governments in both Guinea and Mali, and by the gross violations of internationally recognized human rights being perpetrated by the Government of Ethiopia and other parties amid the widening conflict in northern Ethiopia,” the USTR statement said.
The AGOA trade legislation provides sub-Saharan African nations with duty-free access to the United States if they meet certain eligibility requirements, such as eliminating barriers to U.S. trade and investment and making progress toward popular political participation.
“Each country has clear benchmarks for a path to reinstatement,” the statement continued, “and the Administration will work with their governments to achieve that goal.”
The three African countries’ embassies in Washington did not immediately reply to calls for comment.
Ethiopia’s Trade Ministry said in November that Washington’s statement had left it “very upset,” claiming that it will reverse economic progress and unfairly hurt and injure women and children.
