Uganda Denounces Biden's Letter on Exclusion From Trade Agreement
The government of Uganda on Wednesday, 1st November criticized the United States' announcement that it would withdraw the country from a trade agreement because of human rights violations, saying the move would hurt its farmers and small businesses.
It was earlier announced this week that it was excluding Uganda, along with the Central African Republic, Gabon and Niger, from the list of sub-Saharan African countries benefiting from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) from January 2024.
The AGOA is a trade act of the United States, passed as Public Law 106 of the 200th Congress on May 18, 2000. It has been renewed numerous times, with the most recent renewal in 2015, extending its validity until September 2025.
This Act, allows African countries to export a wide range of products to the United States duty-free. This preferential trade treatment is, however, subject to a series of conditions in terms of political pluralism, respect for human rights and the rule of law, and the fight against corruption.
In a letter to Congress, US President Joe Biden accused the Ugandan government of human rights violations, which has been the focus of fierce criticism from human rights groups, the UN and Western countries since the adoption in May of a law dubbed the "Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023".
Ugandan government officials have linked the move to attempts by the United States to press Uganda to quash an anti-homosexuality law that was passed by parliament in May.
"It seems that they (the United States) have decided that Ugandans should be punished" because of this law, a senior adviser to President Yoweri Museveni, Odrek Rwabwogo, said in a statement
"Even if Ugandan trade via AGOA was insignificant, the growth of our exports to the United States and other partners was an important pillar of our economic strategy", stressed Odrek Rwabwogo, adding that "Ugandan farmers and small business owners will suffer".
As soon as the "anti-homosexuality law" was passed, Joe Biden called for its immediate repeal and threatened to reduce American aid and investment in Uganda.