Anxiety of job loss as jeans factory's deal with US expires

A worker places finished jeans in a trolley inside the United Aryan textile factory at the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Nairobi on February 4, 2025. [AFP]

A Kenyan factory making jeans for US stores will start firing hundreds of workers this week as American lawmakers failed to renew Africa's duty-free access in time, its boss said Friday.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has been a cornerstone of trade relations for 25 years, allowing the United States to buy billions of dollars of duty-free cars, clothes and other items from select African countries each year.