US Senator Chris Coons has proposed a draft bill that would require an immediate “out-of-cycle” review of South Africa’s eligibility for the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

A member of the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, Coons late Monday released – for discussion – the AGOA Renewal Bill of 2023 in which he proposes that the US Trade Representative Katherine Tai should “undertake an immediate out-of-cycle review of South Africa.”

Established by the US Congress in 2000 and renewed in 2015, the AGOA programme provides tariff-free access to the US market for exports of most products from 35 eligible countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Eligibility depends on favourable annual reviews of a country’s trade and investment policy, governance, worker rights, human rights, and other conditions.

Ahead of the 20th AGOA forum in South Africa, Mr Biden revealed plans to expel Uganda, Gabon, Niger and the Central African Republic (CAR). However President Museveni downplayed decision by the US to scrap Uganda off the list of beneficiaries accessing AGOA stating that some of these actors in the Western World overestimate themselves.

AGOA was “meant to benefit African countries” when it was enacted in 2000 but somehow the same AGOA is forcing goods on Africans while its initial mandate was to receive good from Africans short end of the stick as usual plus it’s only being promoted as ‘beneficial’ to ‘Africans’ now that BRICS is becoming a real threat.