US to withdraw four African nations from trade agreement

US President Joe Biden announced that Uganda, Gabon, Niger, and the Central African Republic will no longer be part of a special trade program between the US and Africa.

The president said that some countries either did really bad things to people’s rights or weren’t getting better at being a democracy.

In 2000, the United States created the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).

It lets certain countries in sub-Saharan Africa trade goods with the US without having to pay taxes for over 1,800 different products.

President Biden said that Niger and Gabon cannot receive benefits from Agoa because they have not shown enough progress in establishing political freedom and the rule of law. Both countries are currently being governed by the military due to recent coups.

He also said that the CAR and Uganda were removed from the programme because their governments did really bad things to people’s rights.

In May, the US government said it might take Uganda out of Agoa and impose punishments on the country because of a law it passed against homosexuality that many people disagreed with.

The law that punishes people with death if they are caught doing certain same-sex activities has been strongly criticized around the world.

President Biden said in a letter to the speaker of the US House of Representatives that even though the United States has been working closely with the Central African Republic, Gabon, Niger, and Uganda, these countries have not been meeting the criteria required to be eligible for Agoa.

The four countries have not responded to the announcement yet.

They will be kicked out of Agoa starting next year, and this is likely to hurt their economies because Agoa has been helping them sell more things, grow their economy, and create jobs.

The US government is considering excluding Niger and Gabon from Agoa. This is because the countries are currently being led by military governments.

Last week, the US State Department said that it had stopped giving most help to Gabon from other countries, and would only start again if Gabon’s temporary government starts doing things in a fair and open way.

In August, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said that the US is temporarily stopping some aid programs that help the government of Niger.

Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea were once kicked out of Agoa because they had military takeovers in their countries.