SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
A landmark trade deal between the U.S. and 32 African nations is set to expire next week. The African Growth and Opportunity Act, known as AGOA, was passed into law 25 years ago under President Clinton, and it's received bipartisan support over the years.
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GEORGE W BUSH: We believe that by removing a crippling debt burden will help millions of Africans improve their lives and grow their economies.
SIMON: That was President George W. Bush in 2005. And here's President Obama in 2015, when AGOA was last renewed.
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BARACK OBAMA: Africa is a place of incredible dynamism, some of the fastest-growing markets in the world.
SIMON: But the fate of AGOA is now uncertain. The deadline for renewing it is on Tuesday. Reuben Brigety served as the U.S. ambassador to South Africa and to the African Union under Presidents Obama and President Biden. Ambassador Brigety joins us now in our studios. Thanks so much for being with us.
REUBEN BRIGETY: Thank you for having me.
SIMON: How does AGOA work?
BRIGETY: So AGOA is, although it uses trade, it really is a development program. And the idea is that for those countries that are eligible, if you don't have tariffs placed on some goods that they export to the United States, the idea of a tariff-free ability to export will create the incentives for those countries to actually develop industries on those goods, on everything from apparel, engine parts, and whatever else. And that will then create jobs, bolstering their economies, and therefore decrease the need for external foreign assistance.
SIMON: Has it made a difference over the years?
BRIGETY: Well, yes and no. There certainly have been a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have taken dramatic advantage of AGOA and have grown tens of thousands, in some places, hundreds of thousands of jobs. A country like Kenya, for example, almost 88% of its exports to the United States under AGOA eligible provisions have created tens of thousands of jobs. There's a factory in Kenya called UAL, for example, which helps to produce jeans and other things that are sold by H&M and Levi's. Or a tiny country called Lesotho, which is literally surrounded on all sides by South Africa. Ninety-nine percent of Lesotho's exports to the United States are AGOA eligible. And so in places like that, and also places like Madagascar or Mauritius, it has made a real material impact. But one of the critiques of AGOA is that it has not had the catalytic impact on African manufacturing that it was intended, despite the fact that it's been in existence for almost a generation.
SIMON: Does that put any merit into President Trump's approach, that it is better to deal with African states one by one, rather than grouping them all together in one agreement?
BRIGETY: First of all, AGOA is a unilateral concession. So we say to these sub-Saharan countries that are eligible, you can export 5,000 types of items to the United States, and we will not put tariffs on them. Why would you want to renew it, given President Trump's predilection for tariffs? And the first reason is total exports to the United States under AGOA are about $9.7 billion worth of goods and services in 2023. That's just under AGOA. Total imports into the United States in that same year were $3.8 trillion. So 9.7 billion is a fraction of a part of a drop in the bucket, meaning that for the United States of America, we wouldn't even feel it.
But for those people who are getting jobs and being able to transform their lives in Africa, it makes tremendous difference. The second reason is that even for those countries that have not actively utilized it enough, it is of enormous importance politically for them. The level of significance this has in terms of strengthening our political relationships with the continent are enormous. And this is at a time, quite frankly, where there is great geostrategic competition in Africa with other actors, principally China. And for AGOA to go away, it absolutely would hurt the position of the United States.
SIMON: Would it hurt the position of the United States economically?
BRIGETY: Well, there are certain things certainly that Americans benefit from AGOA. As an example - right? - citrus from South Africa is often exported to the United States under AGOA. Some people won't be able to get the same amount of oranges at the same prices. But as a general matter, most Americans wouldn't feel it, but our African friends would. And that's part of the argument for renewing it because Africa's the youngest continent in the world. Here we are in 2025. By the time we reach 2050 - which is tomorrow - at least one quarter of humanity will be African and somewhere between one third and one half of the global workforce on the planet will be African. That's not conjecture. Those people have already been born.
Africa is the future, both in terms of critical minerals and a seismic geopolitical shift. We want those populations to prosper. We would like for them to be looking towards the United States as their partners of choice. And for the minimal price of extending the kind of trade provisions under AGOA, this is an easy win for us.
SIMON: Reuben Brigety is a former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and the African Union. Thanks so much for joining us in our studio.
BRIGETY: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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