🌍 AGOA uncertainty grows, Prada-Versace deal progresses

Hi {{first_name|Operator}},

Well, Trump’s tariff policies have landed, and along with deep and swift cuts to USAID, their impact is being felt across Africa.

The centre of the conversation for fashion is AGOA — the African Growth Opportunity Act. It’s a set of special terms and conditions for US imports that allows some African countries to sell B2B goods & services to the US more competitively, if they opt in and meet qualifying criteria. One of the ways it does that is by allowing products covered by the act to be imported to the US tariff-free.

Countries like Ethiopia and Kenya have built successful development projects in fashion’s supply chain on the back of AGOA, mostly selling textiles & clothing manufacturing services. Unless its renewed — which it has been for 25 years — AGOA will expire this September, and in the current climate, the jobs it helped create may now be in trouble.

The US is currently reviewing all its trade deals, and the results (set to be shared in April) should shed some light on AGOA’s future. It has typically received general support in congress, so some think there isn’t much to worry about, but the USA’s new approach to trade has others projecting different results this time around. Without AGOA, beneficiaries will have to find new markets for their goods, pivot their businesses or risk losing the jobs, income and development gains altogether.

With thanks,
Modupe Oloruntoba

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