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US removes three African states from trade pact — World News

WASHINGTON DC

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden’s admin­is­tra­tion announced on Jan. 1 that it had exclud­ed Ethiopia, Mali and Guinea from a U.S.-Africa trade agree­ment, say­ing the actions of the three gov­ern­ments vio­lat­ed its principles.“The Unit­ed States today ter­mi­nat­ed Ethiopia, Mali and Guinea from the AGOA trade pref­er­ence pro­gram due to actions tak­en by each of their gov­ern­ments in vio­la­tion of the AGOA Statute,” the U.S. Trade Rep­re­sen­ta­tive (USTR) said in a statement.The African Growth and Oppor­tu­ni­ty Act (AGOA) was put in place in 2000 under the admin­is­tra­tion of for­mer pres­i­dent Bill Clin­ton to facil­i­tate and reg­u­late trade between the Unit­ed States and Africa.But the Unit­ed States is “deeply con­cerned by the uncon­sti­tu­tion­al change in gov­ern­ments in both Guinea and Mali,” the state­ment said.It also voiced con­cern about “gross vio­la­tions of inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized human rights being per­pe­trat­ed by the gov­ern­ment of Ethiopia and oth­er par­ties amid the widen­ing con­flict in north­ern Ethiopia.”“Each coun­try has clear bench­marks for a path­way toward rein­state­ment and the admin­is­tra­tion will work with their gov­ern­ments to achieve that objec­tive,” the USTR said.Under the AGOA agree­ment, thou­sands of African prod­ucts can ben­e­fit from reduced import tax­es, sub­ject to con­di­tions being met regard­ing human rights, good gov­er­nance and work­er pro­tec­tion, as well as not apply­ing a cus­toms ban on Amer­i­can prod­ucts on their territory.By 2020, 38 coun­tries were eli­gi­ble for AGOA.