NAIROBI/JOHANNESBURG, Oct 1 (Reuters) – The lapse of a flagship U.S. trade initiative with Africa that expired overnight is putting scores of businesses on the continent and hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk, raising fears that even a promised extension may come too late.
There is bipartisan support in Washington for a renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which waived U.S. duties on thousands of goods from sub-Saharan African countries for the past 25 years.
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But companies that invested in factories and farms to take advantage of duty-free access say even a temporary lapse will harm operations they built over many years, especially as they already face country-specific tariffs Trump imposed in August.
African exports face immediate damage from lapse of US trade initiative
