Uganda President Defiant Over Country’s Removal from AGOA
President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has said that the US overestimated its value to his country after Washington decided to remove the East African nation from a major trade pact over human rights violations, downplaying the concerns over the expulsion of his country from a special US-Africa trade programme.
Recall that President Joe Biden last week said that Uganda and three other African countries would be removed from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) citing Uganda’s "gross violations of internationally recognised human rights".
Museveni on Sunday however criticized the US, saying they “overestimate themselves” and “erroneously think that African countries cannot move forward without their support”.
“As far as Uganda is concerned, we have the capacity to achieve our growth and transformation targets, even if some of the actors do not support us,” he added.
The President struck a defiant note on Sunday telling Ugandans “not to be over-concerned by the recent actions by the American government in discouraging their companies from investing in Uganda and on removing Uganda from the AGOA list
The US is the latest to take action against Uganda, which in May passed a controversial anti-homosexuality law that includes a death penalty for certain same-sex acts.
The law prompted the World Bank to withdraw Uganda's funding, but President Museveni doubled down, accusing the organization of coercing his country to reverse the law. The World Bank also announced in August it was suspending new loans to Uganda, and last month the US State Department warned about the risk of doing business there.
Museveni has accused the World Bank of using money to try to “coerce” the government to drop the controversial legislation stating that Uganda could still develop without the bank's support.
Museveni, however, hailed the American government for maintaining funding for HIV drugs, but added that his government had a contingency plan to acquire the drugs if foreign donors pulled out.