America First in Africa: What Washington’s new playbook means for the continent

The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) barely survived. With a one-year lifeline and a “modernisation” ultimatum attached, African leaders have months to act.

When President Trump announced sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs in April 2025, the immediate focus fell on China and the European Union. But the shockwaves travelled far beyond Beijing and Brussels. It went all the way to Accra, Maseru, Antananarivo, and Pretoria.

Lesotho, one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most trade-dependent economies, was hit with a 50% reciprocal tariff higher than the one placed on the European Union (EU). The consequences were almost swift and devastating. A textile industry employing around 50,000 people contracted to roughly 36,000 within months. By August, Lesotho had negotiated the rate down to 15%, but the episode laid fragile just how exposed African economies are to Washington’s current shifting temperament.

This is the new terrain. President Trump’s second-term National Security Strategy signals a clean break from the aid-centred, democracy-promotion model that defined about six (6) decades of US engagement with Africa. What replaces it is transactional: trade, investment, critical minerals, and energy, all on American terms.

Race to a Deadline

On February 2, 2026, Trump signed a short-term renewal of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, retroactive to its expiry in September 2025. The relief was real. Exporters who had paid duties during the four-month lapse are entitled to refunds but the terms were sobering. The US House of Representatives had voted to renew the programme for three (3) years; the Senate cut it to one, through December 31, 2026, in line with Trump’s demand for a fundamental overhaul.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer left no ambiguity about what comes next. “AGOA for the 21st century,” he said, “must demand more from our trading partners and yield more market access for US businesses, farmers, and ranchers.” The unilateral preference model where African countries could export duty-free while maintaining their own tariffs on American goods is now under direct challenge. A longer-term renewal, whether the 3-year House version or a Senate-drafted alternative, will carry conditions that the original Act did not.

For South Africa, the situation is more precarious still. Pretoria retains AGOA eligibility for now, but the diplomatic relationship with Washington has deteriorated sharply. Trump boycotted the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November 2025 and later excluded South Africa from the 2026 G20 Miami summit. The 30% reciprocal tariff on South African goods remains in force. AGOA’s renewal provides no override. For the agricultural, automotive, and mining sectors that drive much of South Africa’s export economy, the double pressure of tariffs and eligibility uncertainty is a serious structural threat.

Brief Assessment of AGOA

The honest assessment of AGOA’s 25-year record is uncomfortable. US–Africa trade grew 86% between 2001 and 2024 until you note that US trade with the rest of the world grew at nearly double that rate over the same period. Africa’s share of US trade has fallen from 2% in 2000 to about 1.2% in 2024. Washington’s push for “modernisation” is partly a critique that AGOA, as currently structured, has not delivered proportionate returns for either side.

The structural problem was never really addressed: AGOA-eligible exports remained heavily concentrated in oil. Nigeria peaked at $35 billion in crude exports under the scheme; when prices fell, the numbers collapsed. In 2024, total AGOA oil exports stood at just $1.9 billion close to pre-2004 levels. The promise of diversification into manufacturing and textiles, the kind that transforms economies and creates durable employment, was never fully realised.

US-China-Africa Relations Comparison

While Washington debated conditionalities, Beijing was building relationships. China’s no-strings approach infrastructure finance, trade deals, diplomatic non-interference has steadily expanded its footprint across the continent. Trump’s NSS frames Africa partly through the lens of great-power competition, acknowledging that two (2) decades of Chinese and Russian influence-building cannot be offset quickly. US military bases on the continent, over 25 as of early 2025, are likely to remain and may expand, particularly as militant activity persists across the Sahel.

A Window of Opportunity Opens

Ghana’s approach offers a model worth watching. After negotiating a 15% tariff rate, Accra has moved purposefully announcing plans for three (3) garment factories whose AGOA-covered exports would be shielded from reciprocal levies and expected to generate 27,000 jobs. It is modest, but it is deliberate. Lesotho’s own negotiation from 50% down to 15% demonstrates that the Trump administration rewards preparation and specificity.

The December 2026 deadline concentrates minds in a way that previous open-ended renewals never did. African governments now have roughly 6 months to shape what “AGOA 2.0” looks like before the negotiations that will determine a longer-term deal are effectively concluded. Those who arrive at that table with concrete proposals including but not limited to reciprocal market-access offers, credible investment frameworks, specific sectoral commitments will be far better positioned than to wait for multilateral processes to deliver relief that may not come.

The critical minerals Washington covets like lithium, cobalt, manganese are largely African. The NSS makes clear that securing access to these resources is a strategic priority. That is leverage, if African governments choose to deploy it deliberately rather than surrender it piecemeal through bilateral desperation.

The shift from aid to investment is not inherently bad for Africa. But a relationship built entirely on Washington’s terms, negotiated under deadline pressure, risks replicating the same structural dependency in a different form. America First should not mean Africa last, but that outcome is only avoided if Africa’s leaders treat the next 6 months with the urgency they deserve.

المصدر: MyJoyOnline (GH)