President Donald Trump’s administration has removed South Africa and Rwanda from the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a duty-free trade programme that generated over $1 billion for the two countries.
The move will affect items like South African auto parts, citrus juice and Rwandan coffee often exported to the US
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer notified Congress on Monday of the president’s decision to suspend trade ties with the two countries over human rights abuse and corruption concerns.
“President Trump found that the governments of Rwanda and South Africa are engaging in practices that are inconsistent with AGOA’s eligibility criteria,” Mr Greer said in a statement on Monday.
The Trump administration, according to Mr Greer, was “deeply concerned by barriers to US trade and investment, corruption and threats to US national security and foreign policy interests”.
The suspension would take effect on January 1, 2027, further complicating already strained relations between Washington and South Africa.
The AGOA programme was established in 2000 to enable eligible Sub-Saharan African nations to benefit from the US market.
South Africa raked in $1.7 billion in 2025 from exporting goods duty-free under AGOA to the US But that relationship has become strained since Mr Trump accused President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration of discriminating against White Afrikaners, a claim South Africa denied.
South Africa’s trade ministry released a statement acknowledging the suspension.
“AGOA remains important to South Africa, but it does not constitute the totality of the economic relationship between South Africa and the United States,” it said.
The US government sanctioned Rwanda last week for allegedly deploying M23 rebels to fight against troops in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a move that it said violated the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity drafted in December 2025.