The United States removed Mali, Ethiopia and Guinea from access to a duty-free trade program on Saturday because of alleged human rights abuses and recent coups. US President Joe Biden had warned of this action in November when he said Ethiopia would be removed from the duty-free regime set up under the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
The president’s announcement had been prompted by allegations of human rights violations in the Tigray region; meanwhile, Mali and Guinea had recently undergone coups. Ethiopia, Mali, and Guinea have been removed from the AGOA trade preference program due to their governments’ violations of the AGOA Statute. This was stated in a statement released by the US Trade Representative.
According to the USTR statement, ‘the Biden-Harris Administration is deeply concerned about the unconstitutional changes in governments in both Guinea and Mali, as well as the gross violations of international human rights being committed by the Ethiopian government and others amid the widening conflict in northern Ethiopia’. Ethiopia’s textiles industry, which supplies global fashion brands, will be severely affected by this suspension.
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