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THE US HOUSE EXTENSION OF AGOA
CHANON LECODEY MERRICKS ONLINE_EDITOR
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes the decision by the United States House of Representatives to extend the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for another three years.
This extension is yet another example of the United States pursuing its own geopolitical and economic interests, not those of African people, and highlights why South Africa should withdraw from this arrangement rather than appease US political interests. AGOA was always a conditional trade programme designed to bind African economies to US foreign policy objectives, offering preferential access to US markets in exchange for political alignment.
Despite claims that AGOA supports African development by granting duty-free access, the reality has been that the programme has failed to meaningfully diversify African industrialisation or build sustainable value-added sectors, and has saddled us with low-value imported products.
Our trade with the United States still pales in comparison to other global partners, and the benefits have been limited and uneven. For the United States, renewing AGOA is convenient because it feeds its own narrative of being a benefactor to Africa, while maintaining influence over African markets and political choices.
It serves US strategic interests, including its competition with other powers over Africa’s resources, rather than genuinely empowering African economies to emerge from underdevelopment.
The extension also comes at a time when the US is intensifying economic coercion in other areas of global politics, reinforcing that its “partnerships” are tactical, increasingly aggressive, and not rooted in mutual respect. We have experienced this ourselves as they have retaliated against us for engaging with Iran and Russia, standing for Palestine and they have done so through heavy propaganda.
What the EFF stands for is clear: true economic emancipation for Africa means breaking from trade arrangements that commodify our resources and subordinate our policy autonomy.
South Africa and other African states should not be shackled to conditional programmes that leverage our markets for US political gain, while imposing expectations on our foreign policy.
Rather, we should pursue trade that upholds sovereignty, industrial development, and regional integration, particularly through frameworks like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which prioritises intra-African economic cooperation.
The EFF calls on the government to reject this extension as a political favour, and to reconsider South Africa’s continued participation in AGOA.
Engaging with the imperialist US on equal grounds is impossible at this time and will be detrimental to our ability to be self governing.
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