The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which has been renewed until the end of 2026, has provided duty-free access to the United States for certain African products since 2000, keeping whole sectors of the continent's economy afloat.
Caught in the crosshairs of US President Donald Trump's tariffs blitz, AGOA had expired on September 30 but was renewed on Tuesday with retroactive effect.
Preferential terms
AGOA is a cornerstone of trading relations between the United States and African countries.
The preferential agreement was enacted in 2000 under Democratic president Bill Clinton and allows duty-free access for goods from countries that respect certain conditions, including political pluralism, respect for human rights and efforts to root out corruption.
More than 30 of the more than 50 African countries benefit from the accord, which covers products ranging from clothing to cars.
In 2024, $8.23 billion (7.06 billion euros) worth of goods were exported under the accord, of which half were from South Africa, mainly cars, precious metals and farm produce, and one fifth from Nigeria, mainly oil and other energy products, according to the United States International Trade Commission (USITC).
The main sectors concerned are transport equipment ($2.6 billion), energy ($1.9 billion), textiles ($1.2 billion), agriculture ($1 billion) and metals and minerals ($800 million).
Washington sets terms
AGOA has become a tool of the Trump administration as it seeks to force African countries to meet his demands.
Ghana's Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said in October that Washington had conditioned its extension on the taking in by his country of deportees from the United States.
Washington has on several occasions said that African countries must also open their markets more to American products.
South African car sector on the front line
South Africa, at diplomatic loggerheads with Washington, faced thousands of job losses with the expiration of AGOA under the threat of 30 percent tariffs on its key car and agriculture sectors.
Within AGOA, Washington exempts South African cars from customs duties.
After precious metals, cars are the country's second-biggest export earner to the United States, according to the South African tax authorities.
In early 2025, Billy Tom, president of the automobile employers' organisation Naamsa, said 86,000 jobs were directly tied to the accord at car manufacturers, a number that increases to 125,000 when including their sub-contractors.
Washington has protested a South African expropriation law, which it claims discriminates against the country's white minority.
Pretoria has also come under fire from Washington for accusing Israel of "genocidal" acts in its Gaza offensive, which Israel has denied, and for being close to Russia and China.
Job losses already
Before AGOA was renewed, the African economies that were beneficiaries had been left out on a limb.
Lesotho's textiles sector, the country's biggest employer, had been particularly affected, and hundreds of workers demonstrated in the capital Maseru in October against cuts sparked by the new American tariffs.
Lesotho, which Trump described as a place "nobody has ever heard of", exported $150 million of goods under the accord in 2024.
In Kenya, which exported $575 million under AGOA that year, a jeans manufacturer said in September that it was cutting around one thousand jobs because of the non-renewal of the accord.
