{"id":6795,"date":"2025-10-23T21:17:57","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T21:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=6795"},"modified":"2025-10-23T21:17:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T21:17:57","slug":"thousands-of-jobs-at-risk-in-africa-as-us-trade-deal-expires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2025\/10\/23\/thousands-of-jobs-at-risk-in-africa-as-us-trade-deal-expires\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of jobs at risk in Africa as US trade deal expires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Link to article: https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/kenya-us-trade-deal-agoa-f6d0af89794e0ac677be9dd56b951c19<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. trade program known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) expired on September 30, 2025, ending duty-free access to American markets for many African countries. For nations like Kenya, AGOA was a major economic lifeline, boosting exports\u2014especially in textiles and apparel\u2014from about $50 million to nearly $500 million over two decades. With the program\u2019s lapse, Kenyan manufacturers now face tariffs of 10% or more, threatening their ability to compete with lower-cost producers in Asia. The end of AGOA puts thousands of jobs at risk; Kenya\u2019s apparel sector alone employs more than 66,000 workers, many of them women, and some factories have already begun layoffs. Across Africa, as many as 1.3 million direct and indirect jobs could be affected. Leaders such as President William Ruto are urging the U.S. to renew or replace the trade deal, warning that without it, the loss of investment and access to markets could slow economic growth and strain U.S.\u2013Africa relations. The coming months will be critical as African nations seek new bilateral agreements or a renewal of AGOA to preserve the gains made in trade and employment.
This could potentially be a major setback for countries in Africa, particularly Kenya. The expiration of AGOA reflects the U.S.\u2019s changing foreign policy, with the U.S. trying to shift more toward regional and domestic trade. But I worry about how the program\u2019s end will expose Africa\u2019s dependence on foreign trade relationships. The U.S. exerted a lot of soft power over the area, but with the U.S. ending the program, I could see countries like China and Russia taking that opportunity to spread their influence. Through AGOA, the U.S. ensured fair trade and good working conditions, but with its end, this progress could regress and potentially worsen as other countries take advantage of laborers. I would like to see the U.S. create a new trade deal so the end of AGOA isn\u2019t as much of a shock to Kenya\u2019s economy, and we could slowly wane our influence over the area.
Kenya and other African countries could push the U.S. to bring AGOA back or create a new trade deal. Additionally, the U.S. could create a new agreement that doesn\u2019t provide as much funding, similar to how the U.S. provided aid to Nigeria for hunger. American-based multinational corporations like Apple may pressure the government to act quickly in order to avoid losing profits. Apple is a major consumer of tin and gold from Africa, which could raise tensions between the government and multinational corporations. If the U.S. doesn\u2019t respond, countries like China or the European Union could take advantage and strengthen their partnerships in Africa. Kenyan leaders may also call for more local investment and less dependence on one foreign market.
In connection to what we talked about in class, the U.S. is trying to change from a global hegemonic power to more of a regional one. The U.S. saw the negative effects of globalization during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that experience caused a shift in foreign policy toward a more self-dependent approach with a focus on domestic investment. The U.S. was almost in a trade alliance with African countries, with a similar \u201cyou scratch my back, I\u2019ll scratch yours\u201d relationship. Africa received economic help from the U.S., and in return, the U.S. was able to limit the influence of other powers in Africa while American companies gained access to affordable products. However, after the pandemic, the U.S. wants to exit this \u201calliance\u201d and reduce its soft power because it no longer benefits as much from the relationship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Link to article: https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/kenya-us-trade-deal-agoa-f6d0af89794e0ac677be9dd56b951c19 The U.S. trade program known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) expired on September 30, 2025, ending duty-free access to American markets for many African countries. For nations like Kenya, AGOA was a major economic lifeline, boosting exports\u2014especially in textiles and apparel\u2014from about $50 million to nearly $500 million over two decades. With the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6796,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6795\/revisions\/6796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}