Uganda removed from AGOA beneficiaries
Uganda along with three other countries have officially been struck off as beneficiaries of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), effectively ending Kampala’s ability to export certain commodities to the US duty-free.
According to President Joe Biden on 29th December US had determined that the four countries do not meet the requirements necessary to allow them to continue benefiting from the trade deal, effecting his earlier stated plans to delist them.
“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,” read the statement by the US President.
In an October 2023 letter to the speaker of the US Congress expressing his intention to remove the four countries from the list of Agoa beneficiaries, Mr Biden said Uganda has “engaged in gross violations of internationally recognised human rights.”
This came after President Yoweri Museveni assented to the anti-gay law passed by the Ugandan lawmakers, which introduced serious repercussions, including life imprisonment or death, for same-sex relations in the country.
Uganda’s expulsion from the deal could destroy thousands of jobs, cause a foreign-exchange earnings drought, and low utilisation of raw materials locally, experts have warned.
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.
In December last year, the minister of State for trade Harriet Ntabazi threatened that Uganda will abandon the US market if its participation is hinged on the condition that the country accepts homosexuality, arguing that the country already has enough markets to sell its products.
The minister’s comments came days after Odrek Rwabwogo, the Chairperson of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) led a delegation to the USA to advocate against Uganda’s expulsion from AGOA.
Despite his visit, the White House still issued a Fact Sheet detailing penalty imposed on Uganda upon signing the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023, with that of AGOA still existing.
While at parliament minister Harriet Ntabazi noted that If America insists that Ugandans should marry woman to woman, then government shall do away with the market because what Uganda is looking for in that market is political relationships.
She added that, “but real trade volumes, that have shaped Uganda to the Middle-income status, that (United States) isn’t one of them. We have enough markets for Uganda, we have the East African Community, we have Southern African Development Community (SADC), we have the European Union, we have markets in China and India,”
The Minister also attacked the US Gov’t for mixing issues of trade and human rights, saying Uganda already had complaints about the US demanding Uganda to only export raw materials without adding value, saying such a move is disadvantageous to Uganda, thus calling for the need to conduct more negotiations to have such conditions changed.
