US‑Africa week ahead: AGOA’s last chance; Kenya and Ghana hold their breath
The Africa report, 1 September 2025
By Julian Pecquet
US‑Africa week ahead: AGOA’s last chance; Kenya and Ghana hold their breath
The annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) offers US Congress a rare chance to shape Africa policy in the Trump era.
We’re back in Washington this week as Congress returns from its month-long summer break with a packed agenda before the fiscal year ends at the end of September.
African political and business leaders will be paying especially close watch for any signs of life from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which will expire on 30 September unless lawmakers renew it. Launched under president Bill Clinton, the duty-free scheme has been the cornerstone of US economic policy in Africa for the past 25 years.
With time running short for a stand-alone bill, AGOA supporters believe their best hope is for a short-term renewal as part of a broader bill. Options include the Continuing Resolution government funding bill and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), both of which must pass before the start of the new fiscal year on 1 October.
South Africa keeps trying
Last week, the African Union office in Washington hosted African ambassadors to discuss the lobbying push to renew the programme and the outlook for tariffs if AGOA expires. Individual African countries are ramping up their own campaigns, with South Africa sending a high-level delegation this week following a visit by Kenya’s top trade official last month.
South Africa’s minister of trade and industry, Parks Tau, and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s special adviser for investment promotion, Alistair Ruiters, will be visiting Washington for high-level engagements to see if they can convince President Donald Trump to lower his punitive 30% tariff on the country, the highest in Africa.
The busy minister will be arriving fresh off visits to the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) and the India Africa Business Conclave in New Delhi as regional powers deepen their ties with the continent.
South Africa remained America’s top trading partner on the continent in the first half of 2025 but commercial exchanges have plunged since the threat of US tariffs, down by two-thirds between February and June, according to a review of US trade data by The Africa Report.
Expect Africa’s most industrialised country to highlight its trade in manufactured goods with the United States and the rest of the world, including world-beating exports such as luxury catamarans that contain parts from more than a dozen American suppliers.
Defence bill targets Africa
Meanwhile, the Senate is expected to start voting on the NDAA on Tuesday, 2 September, after the Labour Day holiday. Lawmakers have filed hundreds of amendments to the annual defence bill, including a couple of proposals from the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that have created a ruckus on the continent.
One amendment from Senator Jim Risch, Republican of Idaho, would require the State Department to review Kenya’s eligibility for the preferential status of non-NATO ally granted under president Joe Biden. Another would require the Trump administration to oppose Ghana’s eligibility for International Monetary Fund (IMF) support until it pays back its debts to American companies.
Another amendment from Risch would require the State Department to review whether the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces meet the criteria for designation as foreign terrorist organisations.
And yet another would restrict funding for AUSSOM, the UN-backed African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia. The US objects to the new ‘hybrid’ funding model allowing African Union peacekeeping missions to be funded by UN-assessed contributions.
In other congressional news, Risch’s committee on Wednesday 3 September holds the nomination hearing for Bill Bazzi to serve as ambassador to Tunisia, replacing Joey Hood. The Lebanese-born mayor of Dearborn Heights helped deliver a historic victory for Trump among Muslim and Arab Americans, who abandoned the Democratic party in droves over the Joe Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
Meanwhile in the House, the lower chamber votes on Tuesday 2 September on legislation from Texas Democrat Joaquin Castro that would extend the same diplomatic privileges and immunities granted to UN member states to the permanent observer mission of the African Union to the United Nations in New York.
