US Congress moves to revive Agoa, but SA’s continued participation is in doubt

The US Congress is moving to revive the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), which expired on 30 September this year – but it is uncertain whether South Africa will be included.

On Wednesday the powerful House Ways and Means Committee passed the Agoa Extension Act, a bill introduced by its chairperson, Jason Smith, to extend Agoa for three years, until 31 December 2028. The committee voted 37-3 for the bill, showing strong bipartisan support. It will next be considered by the full house.

It would reinstate Agoa retroactively to 30 September, also reimbursing importers for duties they have paid in the interval.

But on Tuesday the US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer raised doubts about South Africa’s continued participation in Agoa, which gives duty-free access to the US market for eligible African countries, without requiring any reciprocal US access to their markets. It has been working since 2020, and has substantially benefited key South African industries such as auto, fruit and wine producers.

Greer told the US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce that he would be happy to consider cutting South Africa out of Agoa if Congress wanted that.

He had confirmed to the subcommittee that the administration would agree to extending Agoa – though it would only like to see it extended by a year, which would give the administration and Congress time to reform it, including by giving the US some reciprocal benefits.

“But if you extend Agoa by a year without reforming it, that’s going to benefit South Africa, right?” asked Republican Senator John Kennedy.

Greer agreed, but pointed out that the administration had earlier this year imposed a 30% reciprocal tariff on South Africa which was much higher than the import tariffs for other African countries. His implication seemed to be that, with a 30% tariff, South Africa would not benefit much from Agoa anyway.

But Kennedy persisted, asking Greer: “Don’t you think we should separate South Africa from Agoa?” adding: “They’re our enemy right now. They’re buddies with our enemies.”

“I’m happy to consider that,” Greer replied. “If you think we should give South Africa different treatment, I’m open to that because I think they are a unique problem.”

He said South Africa had imposed “a lot of barriers, not just tariffs but non-tariff barriers” on the US. “We’ve made clear to South Africa that if they want to have a better tariff situation with us, they need to take care of these tariffs and non-tariff barriers. Because they’re a big economy. They have an industrial base. They have an agricultural base.

“They should be buying things from the United States.”

Kennedy recently submitted a bill to extend Agoa, but congressional sources recently told Daily Maverick it was “going nowhere”. Whereas Smith’s bill is considered likely to succeed because of his position at the head of a powerful committee.

Anthony Carroll, a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Daily Maverick that it was unlikely that Smith would have introduced his bill “without at least a no objection from the White House”.

He added that Smith’s bill would extend Agoa until after the 2028 US elections. In other words, beyond Trump’s presidency.

“South Africa should take some comfort that it was not signalled out, although amendments could still be introduced,” he said.

Kaamil Alli, spokesperson for South Africa’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau, said: “Our conversation continues on the trade agreement with the US. We maintain that having a constructive trade relationship with the US will benefit both parties.

“We also have been actively lobbying for South Africa’s inclusion in the Agoa extension. In this respect we have been hard at work in our efforts to lobby for this through our representing Washington and our numerous visits to the US.”

Read more: Agoa has officially lapsed but US mulls one-year extension

However, Daily Maverick was also told that Pretoria believes that the US administration wants to keep South Africa out of Agoa so that it could negotiate a reciprocal free trade agreement with it.

Greer told the Senate on Tuesday that Agoa was not working as it should because China was making trade inroads into Africa. “If we’re going to have Agoa, this needs to be addressed.”

Kennedy had noted that China had a trillion-dollar overall trade surplus in 2024 – and that it was diverting many exports from the US to Africa, because of Trump’s large trade tariffs.

Africa Report reported this week that US legislators hoped to pass the Agoa extension quickly for inclusion in the so-called Continuing Resolution to continue funding the federal government past January 2026.

It also reported a lobbying blitz in Washington that was culminating this week in a series of events of pro-Agoa advocates with legislators, ambassadors and Trump administration officials.

“The Agoa Alliance, a coalition of US and African business, policy and trade leaders backed by Afreximbank and co-chaired by former assistant US trade representative for Africa Rosa Whitaker and former Utah congressman Chris Stewart, this week launched the ‘Continue Agoa!’ initiative in Washington, DC,” it said. DM