Trump moves to cut South Africa and Rwanda out of AGOA from 1 January, putting $1.7bn of South African exports at risk

JOHANNESBURG — The United States plans to remove South Africa and Rwanda from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the trade programme that lets goods from eligible African countries into the US without duty. President Donald Trump has notified Congress and the two governments that both countries will lose their place on 1 January 2027, the Office of the US Trade Representative said on Monday.

“Based on the review, President Trump found that the governments of Rwanda and South Africa are engaging in practices that are inconsistent with AGOA’s eligibility criteria,” said Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. He said these “concerning and pervasive practices” include “barriers that undermine American trade and investment and practices that pose a threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests in the region”.

For South Africa, USTR listed barriers to US trade and investment, corruption, and threats to US security and foreign-policy interests. For Rwanda, which also lost some AGOA benefits in 2018, the list is longer: trade and investment barriers, the rule of law, political pluralism, worker rights, human rights, and US security and foreign-policy interests.

What South Africa stands to lose

South Africa exported about $1.7bn of goods to the US under AGOA in 2025, mostly vehicles and parts, farm products and wine, Reuters reported. Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau said last week that about 89% of South Africa’s exports to the US already enter on ordinary WTO terms, and that only about 10% use AGOA. “The greater pressure on our exporters comes from the Section 232 duties of 25% on autos and 50% on steel and aluminium,” he said, The National reported. Tau said South Africa was ready for any decision and remained open to talks.

Citrus growers expect to be hit hardest. “Our exclusion from AGOA will result in job losses in the Western and Northern Cape. It is too early to say how many,” said Gerrit van der Merwe, chair of the Citrus Growers Association. The association’s chief executive, Boitshoko Ntshabele, called the move “a severe blow” to an industry that has spent decades building its US market.

Relations between Pretoria and Washington were already poor. The US has stopped aid, set up a refugee programme for Afrikaners, restricted visas for some officials and left South Africa out of the G20 summit it is hosting in Florida in December.

AB24’s reading from Johannesburg: Monday’s notice is a statement of intent; a presidential proclamation is still needed to give it legal effect. Watch whether Pretoria can open talks before 1 January, and whether carmakers in the Eastern Cape and fruit exporters in the Western Cape start moving volumes to other markets. Rwanda’s coffee, tea and minerals face the same deadline.

Sources: Office of the US Trade Representative, 2 Nov 2026; The National, 2 Nov 2026; Reuters via Al Jazeera, 2 Nov 2026.

— AB24 · Johannesburg