{"id":2234034,"date":"2026-11-02T19:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T16:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2234034"},"modified":"2026-11-02T19:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T16:33:10","slug":"trump-to-remove-rwanda-and-south-africa-from-us-trade-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2234034","title":{"rendered":"Trump to remove Rwanda and South Africa from US trade deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/e727\/live\/e5cde5c0-d6ef-11f1-ae42-99a80c72db9e.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Last year, Trump accused South Africa of white genocide in a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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US President Donald Trump has notified Congress of his intention to remove South Africa and Rwanda from a preferential trade programme, from 1 January 2027.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) allows eligible African countries to export thousands of products to the US duty-free.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement that an annual review had found that both countries were engaging in practices inconsistent with the programme’s eligibility requirements.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He added that the Trump administration had additionally notified the two countries of the decision.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Trump administration cited barriers to US trade and investment, as well as concerns over national security and foreign policy interests in the region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In Rwanda’s case, Washington also raised concerns about human rights, political pluralism, the rule of law and workers’ rights. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The move comes barely a week after Rwanda’s defence ministry was hit with sanctions by US Treasury for its alleged role in the armed rebellion in eastern DR Congo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The US Treasury said Rwanda’s defence ministry directed thousands of troops to fight alongside M23 rebels in eastern DR Congo, providing weapons, equipment, logistics and training.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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For South Africa, the US additionally pointed to corruption.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“The Trump administration is working to ensure our African partners take the necessary steps to meet the eligibility criteria,” Greer said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The announcement comes amid strained relations between Washington and both countries, with the proposed termination threatening their access to preferential trade arrangements with the US.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Last year, Trump accused South Africa of white genocide in a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House and launched a US refugee pathway for Afrikaners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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US Ambassador to South Africa Leo Brent Bozell III said it was regrettable that South African policies led to its termination from Agoa. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“This was a predictable and preventable outcome resulting from the rejection by South Africa’s government of real concerns raised by the US,” he wrote on X.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c9j346xg0mkvo”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/e727\/live\/e5cde5c0-d6ef-11f1-ae42-99a80c72db9e.jpg”] Getty Images Last year, Trump accused South Africa of white genocide in a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House US President Donald Trump has notified Congress of his intention to remove South Africa and Rwanda from a preferential trade programme, from 1 January 2027. The African Growth and Opportunity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2234034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2234034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2234034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2234034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2234034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}