Musings From Abroad

US Treasury Chief, Adeyemo wants Congress to extend US-Africa trade programme, AGOA

Published

1 year ago

November 10, 2023

United States Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo has expressed hope that the US Congress will extend the US-Africa trade programme— the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Under the AGOA arrangement, exports are permitted from qualifying African countries with duty-free access to the US market, highlighting the strategic opportunities in the region.

AGOA, which was introduced in 2000, allows exports from eligible nations duty-free access to the American market. Although talks about whether and for how long to extend it are already underway, it is scheduled to expire in September 2025. But Congress has been divided on the modalities around the likely extension of the programme.

Adeyemo, during a press conference, admitted that the programme had played an important in Africa and should be extended.

“I hope that Congress will act to make sure that we continue to have tools that allow us to deepen our trade with Africa,” he said.

“It matters to us. We need to seize the huge opportunity that it is for us to engage with Africa, a continent with a burgeoning young population that is central to many of our economic and national security interests as well.”

A United States Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, during a visit to South Africa last week where she met trade ministers from Africa, said the US was in search of a “more useful and effective” trade programme with Africa.

Speaking on investors’ interest in the Nigerian market, Adeyemo, who is of Nigerian descent, said “They want to do more business in Nigeria, but to do so, Nigeria has to make the type of economic reforms that make it easier for foreign direct investment to come in and for money to get out”.

Research indicates that in certain countries, particularly for women, AGOA has contributed to the reduction of poverty and the creation of jobs. However, between 2014 and 2021, just five countries accounted for over 75% of duty-free non-petroleum exports to the US under the programme: South Africa, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, and Ethiopia.

In an attempt to draw attention to the importance of Africa and counter any threats China and Russia may pose to US interests there, Washington is eager to regain its declining influence on the continent.

Related Topics:Adewale-Wally-Adeyemo Africa Featured US

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Musings From Abroad

UN Security Council deliberates stance on Sudan war

Published

4 days ago

November 13, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The UN Security Council is discussing a British-drafted resolution calling on Sudan’s warring parties to stop hostilities and permit safe, quick, and unimpeded assistance supplies across borders and front lines.

The world’s largest relocation crisis began in April 2023 when the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces engaged in a power battle ahead of a planned transfer to civilian administration.

Waves of ethnically motivated violence have resulted, with the RSF mostly to blame. The RSF has blamed the action on rogue actors and denies causing harm to civilians in Sudan. Two RSF generals were named last week by a Security Council committee in the first U.N. sanctions levied during the ongoing conflict.

“Nineteen months into the war, both sides are committing egregious human rights violations, including the widespread rape of women and girls,” Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Barbara Woodward, told reporters at the start of this month as Britain assumed the Security Council’s presidency for November.

“More than half the Sudanese population are experiencing severe food insecurity,” she said. “Despite this, the SAF and the RSF remain focussed on fighting each other and not the famine and suffering facing their country.”

According to diplomats, Britain wants to vote on the draft resolution as soon as possible. A resolution must receive nine votes or more to pass and not be vetoed by the United States, France, Britain, Russia, or China.

Nearly 25 million people, or half of Sudan’s population, require aid, according to the U.N., since 11 million people have abandoned their homes and famine has spread to displacement camps. Of those, around 3 million have departed for other nations.

In its draft language, Britain “demands that the warring parties immediately cease hostilities” and “demands that the Rapid Support Forces immediately halt its offensives” throughout Sudan.

It also “calls on the parties to the conflict to allow and facilitate the full, safe, rapid, and unhindered crossline and cross-border humanitarian access into and throughout Sudan.”

Additionally, the draft urges that assistance deliveries continue to be made through the Adre border crossing with Chad “and stresses the need to sustain humanitarian access through all border crossings, while humanitarian needs persist, and without impediments.”

Sudanese authorities have permitted the U.N. and relief organisations to enter Darfur through the Adre border crossing for three months, ending in mid-November.

Musings From Abroad

South Africa worry Trump’s victory might affect climate fight

Published

1 week ago

November 10, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

South Africa’s environment minister has expressed concern about the potential effects of Donald Trump’s victory on climate change negotiations.

The demise of Germany’s coalition government this week and Trump’s election coincide with COP29 negotiations to address global warming, which experts credit for this year’s devastating hurricanes, floods, and heatwaves.

“We are concerned about America because we don’t know what they’re going to do … how (it) is going to approach COP,” South African Environment Minister Dion George told Reuters.

“Mr. Trump said that he would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, but we don’t know what will happen,” George added in a telephone interview on Friday.

International partners are concerned that the prospect of an administration led by Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, will de-motivate poor and middle-income countries who want rich nations to shoulder more of its financial burden.

South Africa, which is one of the world’s top 15 greenhouse gas emitters and accounts for 30% of the continent’s emissions, has accepted $11.6 billion from rich nations, mainly in loans, for a switch from coal to renewable energy.

This is seen as a potential model for other ‘Global South’ countries who say financing pledges of $100 billion, which took years to come through, are insufficient.

“It’s certainly not enough. We need another target,” George said. “But then the question is: as the voter base is shifting in developed economies, are they actually going to pay it?”

The South African minister said he had been reassured by German officials that Europe’s stance at the COP29 climate talks will not be hurt by Berlin’s political crisis.

George said that Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s state secretary for international climate action, had contacted him to say it will be up to the European Union to maintain leadership.

“Their position is not changed and that is how they will approach COP,” George said, adding: “They’re on Team Europe. The European Union and German have clearly set out their objectives.”