The United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Monday said Washington would exclude South Africa and Rwanda from a major Africa-US duty-free trade deal, a blow to both economies, over practices \u201cinconsistent\u201d with the deal\u2019s eligibility criteria.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThese concerning and pervasive practices include, but are not limited to, barriers that undermine American trade and investment and practices that pose a threat to US national security and foreign policy interests in the region,\u201d Greer said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n
The exclusions will take effect from January 1, the statement said.\n<\/p>\n
The African Growth and Opportunity Act, which grants eligible sub-Saharan African countries preferential access to the US market, has been renewed until the end of 2028, but is reviewed annually.<\/p>\n
South Africa is the programme\u2019s largest beneficiary, but its eligibility has come under scrutiny as Washington steps up criticism of Pretoria, including allegations of discrimination against white Afrikaners that South Africa rejects.\n<\/p>\n
On Thursday, South Africa\u2019s trade minister said the country hoped for a favourable decision from Washington on the issue, arguing that continued market access would be in the best interest of both countries.<\/p>\n
A little over a week earlier, however, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the country should \u201cprepare\u201d for an adverse decision.<\/p>\n
(https:\/\/punchng.com\/ramaphosa-tells-south-africa-to-prepare-for-loss-of-us-africa-trade-deal\/)\n<\/p>\n
The US president reviews countries\u2019 eligibility for AGOA annually.\n<\/p>\n
Any removal requires 60 days\u2019 notice to Congress and the country concerned.\n<\/p>\n
South African Trade Minister Parks Tau told reporters in Johannesburg last week that regardless of Trump\u2019s decision on AGOA, his country\u2019s economy would remain stable as it seeks other international markets.\n<\/p>\n
\u2013 Increasing pressure on Rwanda \u2013<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n Washington has been increasing economic pressure on Rwanda over its alleged backing of the armed M23 rebel group in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.\n<\/p>\n Last week, the United States sanctioned the Rwandan defence ministry over those ties, which the Rwandan government denies.<\/p>\n With Rwandan help, the M23 movement has seized swathes of the eastern DRC \u2014 home to valuable minerals coveted by world powers \u2014 since it took up arms again in 2021.\n<\/p>\n Rwanda\u2019s foreign minister told AFP last week that his country should not be a \u201cscapegoat\u201d for events in DR Congo.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe situation in the DRC, the political situation, the security situation, is mainly a Congolese issue,\u201d Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe told AFP on the sidelines of a Russia-Africa summit in Moscow before the US sanctions were imposed.\n<\/p>\n \u201cRwanda must not be held as a scapegoat for what is happening in Congo forever,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n AFP\n <\/p>\n Source: <\/p>\n The United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Monday said Washington would exclude South Africa and Rwanda from a major Africa-US duty-free trade deal, a blow to both economies, over… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}