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President Biden Message to the Congress on the Termination of Ethiopia under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)

A Message to the Congress on the Termination of the Designation of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Ethiopia), the Republic of Guinea (Guinea), and the Republic of Mali (Mali) as beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATESSTATEMENTS AND RELEASES

In accordance with section 506A(a)(3)(B) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2466a (a)(3)(B)), I am providing advance notification of my intent to terminate the designation of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Ethiopia), the Republic of Guinea (Guinea), and the Republic of Mali (Mali) as beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

I am taking this step as Ethiopia, Guinea, and Mali are not in compliance with the eligibility requirements of section 104 of the AGOA — in Ethiopia, for gross violations of internationally recognized human rights; in Guinea, for not having established, or not making continual progress toward establishing, the protection of the rule of law and of political pluralism; and in Mali, for not having established, or not making continual progress toward establishing, the protection of the rule of law, political pluralism, and internationally recognized worker rights, and for not addressing gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.

Despite intensive engagement between the United States and the Governments of Ethiopia, Guinea, and Mali, these governments have failed to address United States concerns about their non-compliance with the AGOA eligibility criteria.
Accordingly, I intend to terminate the designation of Ethiopia, Guinea, and Mali as beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries under the AGOA as of January 1, 2022.  I will continue to assess whether the Governments of Ethiopia, Guinea, and Mali are making continual progress toward meeting the AGOA eligibility requirements.

                               JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

THE WHITE HOUSE,
November 2, 2021.

8 thoughts on “President Biden Message to the Congress on the Termination of Ethiopia under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)”

  1. “US Suspends duty-free access to Ethiopia over human rights abuses”. Bloomberg, November 2, 2021
    AGOA is in effect suspended as reported on Aljazeera by Bloomberg.

  2. QUOTE: “human rights abuses”. UNQUOTE

    Humble Comment, 2 Nov 2021
    OF course, the Great USA knows it very well, inside out.
    To be honest, what is a little shocking is the turn coat of the Most Honourable and Wise Leadership of the President of the United States of America and the Universe. One wonders the reaction of the previous President who selected his own vice president in open daylight. Now I know, with deep feeling, the deep meaning of “THE HOODINI ACT” Now I deeply know what it means to be simplton human being. Amen – Inshallah [in alphabetical order>>> NO, NO, NO third world war], please }. .

  3. “For gross violations of internationally recognized human rights?” How come this never happened in the 27 years Tplf run the show? In 1998 and 2000 Tplf caused a border war that claimed 80,000 lives! Tplf took part in torturing Guantanamo detainees! Is the Biden Admin seriously out to destabilize Ethiopia? Why is Biden targeting low-income women?

  4. A retired US general, General Stanley McChrystal, writes “War is fought and decided in the minds of people”. Disinformation, he says, has “the potential and the power of weapons of mass destruction.”

    Following this principle the US govt and it European associates, with their global media empires, have unleashed unprecedented disinformation campaign against Ethiopia for almost a year now.
    They believed this psychological war would bring this proud nation to its knees, but by the day their frustration grew as their strategies have not worked quite that way.

    The cynicism in American deception knows no bounds – only a week ago the US ambassador to Ethiopia visited Awassa Industrial Park, and after her visit was heard saying how AGOA was an important program for the economic ties between the two countries. A week later her president cancels that program.

    The true purpose of her visit, it seems now, was to assess how vulnerable the poor women working there are, and confirm the heavy damage the cancellation of the program would be to those women, the community, and indeed to the country as a whole.

  5. All the blame rests on no one else except the inept administration in Addis/Finfine. Now there are tens of thousands of former dissidents who trusted the government there who abandoned their safe shelters and went back home. They are now in grave danger. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that will stop Debre and his rag tags from entering the capital. He has managed to secure muscled up beasts of burden in Shene and Amhara regions. O boy! He would love to put his hands on Birtukan, Berhanu, Andargachew, Eskinder and thousands of former rebels. He would not have a 2nd thought to line up and make them target practices by his and Shene beasts of burden. Abiy and his lieutenants are not that stupid when it comes to personal safety. They will be gone to glittering cities of Europe and USA on the day Debre come to town. You know what Debre’s predecessors did to prisoners who used to be their sworn enemies. You heard what their former comrade-in-arms Gebru told us a few years ago. They summarily executed former leaders of EPRP who peacefully surrendered in 1991 in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Aregawi bin Berhe, you’re the first course. O boy, o boy! Dear Birtukan! Stay put and if Debre is on the outskirt of the capital go and find refuge at the US Embassy. You were deceived like me and million others who thought Abiy was it. We all thought he is as smart as his words. We thought he was the whole package, capable of withering any storm thrown at him. We are all taken for a long ride, hon!!! I pray for you and your family’s safety. Insha’Allah!!!

    Meanwhile, I am pleading to our President Biden to send his envoy both to Addis/Finfine and Mekele and do his utmost to avert out of control bloodletting and drag those two knuckleheads to a negotiating table. Otherwise the entire 120 million people will be on the move.

  6. Thank you Mr. President for imposing sanction on the poor women getting employment through your package of AGOA. This decision will let Ethiopian people stand together for unity , solidarity and democracy.. Ethiopians will recognize, ‘development comes out initially from inside out, not out side in’. Your aid and packages worth nothing to Ethiopian , cause it does not bring change in their life. To conclude , growth and development of one nation is a result of hard working , expansion of education. and good governance in the country.. See China and other Asian countries..

  7. Wha tvreally is AGOA? And what ordinary Ethiopians except the elite will loose ? Nothing. All these trade agreements are in fact organized slave labor for US or West based companies to drain every sweat and resource from African countries. Does really Ethiopia need hard currency to feed, dress and house itself ? No it does not. The Emperor time currency strength and economical self sufficiency does atest to that. Even DERG with all the war economy caused by sellout bandas did not need AGOA to be self reliant. The DERG built schools, roads and hospitals in times of war indigenous way without booting in debt. The only debt it has was in military expenditure and that is miniscule to current debt levels and stollen money TPLF left our country even with AGOA. So yes Mr Duck Biden you are in your own right to withdraw it it only means Ethiopians will have excess supply in th country and prices will go down for average Ethiopian. They are paying heavy price for galloping inflation b cause everything is exported to align with your sooner capitalist lobbiests. That only helps the Ethiopian economy to diversify and scale to sized organically at local level similar to old abundance times when our currency was as strong to the dollar. With the DAM competed we will need less of hard currency and electric cars will be the new reality in Ethiopia. Now your reason Mr Duck are frivolous as you are justifying a few to be on the shoulders of theajority of Ethiopians. And you are doing it becaua your state department is full of corrupt officials with corrupt relationship with TPLF and appointed not but merit to assess what the issue is in the ground but follow th money lik a donkey follows the carrot. I hope the Virginia event progress to the point it brings you back to pain in your own turf. What goes around comes arround. We may have undecided and useless leader but you do not have the right to impos who will lead us.

  8. Folks,

    This banning is not the end of the world for those industries exporting goods to the USA. They are Not forbidden to enter this country but the tax free privilege is on hold for now. You have to look at the HSN code of each product to see which ones carry the highest import taxes. Without the tax free privilege there are a lot of products that are always duty free and there are plenty others that have very low tariffs on them. Honestly it will hit the pockets of the owners which will translate into austere measures by them. I am quite sure there could be wiggling room in the owners coffers to be able to ‘lick their chops’ and let those machines keep humming. Above all this banning is temporary anyway. Let’s hope that the government there will not do something senseless and not bright that will raise the ire of the West which could lead to slapping punitive very high tariffs and even total banning. For now our economics experts can look into the products involved and shed some lights on the impacts from this ban. For example leather in tanned quality carries a 10% import tax. I suspect there should be a room for absorption here. Some of us should refrain aggravating the situation from our comfy homes here. After recollecting myself I said ‘Wait a minute! This is not the end of the world’.

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