United States quietly gives South Africa a big win
The United States Senate has quietly approved a two-year extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), moving to keep it in place until the end of 2028.
This follows a late extension to the programme in February 2026, which allowed the trade deal to continue until the end of the year.
The February extension came almost five months after the Act lapsed in September 2025, and applied retroactively.
The new extension will ensure that a similar lapse doesn’t occur again, aiming to keep AGOA in place until the end of the current US presidential term.
The bill will now proceed to the House of Representatives for concurrence before it is sent to US President Donald Trump for assent.
Notably, the bill approved by the US Senate only changes the end date of AGOA from 2026 to 2028 and makes no other changes.
This means that all 32 countries—including South Africa—are still part of the deal.
This is a significant boon for South Africa, which has had an icy relationship with Washington under the Trump administration.
AGOA was first enacted in 2000 to provide duty-free access to the US market for eligible Sub-Saharan African countries, covering more than 1,800 products.
To qualify for AGOA’s duty-free treatment, countries must establish or make continual progress toward establishing a market-based economy, the rule of law, political pluralism, and the right to due process.
Additionally, countries must eliminate barriers to US trade and investment, enact policies to reduce poverty, combat corruption, and protect human rights.
It’s these terms and conditions that have often brought South Africa’s participation in the Act into question.
South Africa under the spotlight
Approximately 22% of South African exports to the US benefit from AGOA, resulting in billions of dollars in trade.
Estimates suggest that half a million South African jobs are dependent on AGOA.
Despite this, South Africa has been criticised by the US government for its economic and political policies, which are seen as acting against US interests.
This includes BEE requirements for US companies operating in South Africa and concerns over property rights due to laws such as the Expropriation Act.
While the AGOA extension is expected to pass in the US House of Representatives and become a reality, it does not preclude South Africa from being booted from the programme.
To this end, two separate but similar bills have been introduced in the US Senate and the US House to do exactly this.
Both introduced in 2025, the bills explicitly call for a review of the United States’ relations with South Africa, including the country being booted from the AGOA programme.
The bills state that the programme should include only countries aligned with US interests, with Republican politicians behind the proposed laws arguing that South Africa would not qualify.
The first bill, the US-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act (H.R.2633) was tabled in the House of Representatives April 2025 by Ronnie Jackson.
A second bill, called the US-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act (S.2752), was tabled in the US Senate in September 2025 by Senator John Kennedy.
Both argue that South Africa’s close and friendly relations with “America’s enemies”—being Russia, China and Iran—disqualify the country from enjoying the beneficial US programmes.
The bills also call for individual sanctions against South African government officials and members of the African National Congress found to be acting against US interests.
Unlike the AGOA extension bills, however, neither of the South Africa-specific bills has made any progress since being introduced, indicating a lack of appetite or bipartisan support.
Similar bills were introduced during the first Trump presidency and also failed to gain any traction.
The Bill that has been passed by the US Senate extending AGOA can be read below:
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