US removes Uganda from Agoa trade deal

Uganda now has to find alternatives to plug the gap of nearly Shs40billion export revenue after US President Joe Biden terminated the East African country from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).

In October 2023, Biden issued notice of intention to remove Uganda from the Agoa to the Speaker of the Senate, citing human rights violations.

A December 2023 communication from the office of the trade representative, confirmed the termination that now locks Ugandan made products out of the preferential treatment on US market.

 “I have determined that Central African Republic, Gabon, Niger and Uganda do not meet the requirements described in section 506A (a)(1) of the Trade Act.  Accordingly, I have decided to terminate the designations of the Central African Republic, Gabon, Niger, and Uganda as beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries for purposes of section 506A of the Trade Act, effective January 1, 2024,” the statement reads.

Agoa, a US trade preference act, was enacted on May 18, 2000, and provides duty-free access of over 6,000 products from beneficiary countries to the US market.

Uganda’s exports to the US grew from Shs4 billion in 2019 to Shs39b in 2022, revenue that is now lost. Major exports included textiles and agricultural products.

In November, trade ministry permanent secretary Geraldine Ssali told Monitor that negatives including loss of jobs in the labor-intensive industries like textiles would be registered, but remained confident that Uganda would make up for the loss by tapping into other markets.

The termination from Agoa follows a number of other sanctions, including travel restrictions against top officials and threats of aid cuts, slapped against Uganda after the adoption of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2023. The US labeled the law retrogressive.

But in his Christmas message to Ugandans, President Museveni remained bullish despite growing tensions with key western allies.

“The pressures we are getting from outside about the homosexuality law, some of the people may be worried but me I’m not worried at all this is because this is an opportunity to clarify one point that Uganda can stand on its own and some of us are indigenous people of this area, this is our area for the last 1,000 years. We have been active here, the Europeans came for a short period and went, our communities are very strong,” he said.

He added: “I’m confident that we shall manage, and you can see our economy is growing, our inflation is one of the lowest now. And I would advise those putting us under pressure to stop because it is not good for them, we shall prove our point that African countries can stand on their own.