US Intends to Suspend South Africa and Rwanda From African Trade Program
The United States intends to suspend South Africa and Rwanda from duty-free access to the U.S. market, according to Reuters, which reported the plan on November 2, 2026.
The arrangement at issue is the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a U.S. trade law that allows eligible African countries to send certain goods into the United States without paying import tariffs, the taxes a country charges on goods entering it. Access under the program is granted to countries that meet the law's conditions, and it can be withdrawn.
The New York Times reported that Donald Trump told Congress and the South African government that he intended to remove South Africa from the program. The New York Times and U.S. News both reported that the cut is set to take effect at the end of the year.
The program has been used before to end a country's access. In October 2023, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative said that Gabon and Niger would lose their eligibility because of unconstitutional changes of government in those two countries. Earlier, a 2018 annual review led to the termination of Mauritania's eligibility as of January 1, 2019, a decision the U.S. later linked to insufficient progress in combating forced labor.
