The trade minister of Lesotho announced on Wednesday that the U.S. is extending the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), providing the preferential access to the American market by one year, following a visit to Washington. Generally, they were viewed as the tolling of the death knell for the quarter-century-old AGOA deal, which has endangered millions of livelihoods.
On Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day,” Lesotho became the first to be struck with the highest tariff in the world of 50 percent, devastating to the textile-factory-driven model of export-led development of the tiny mountain kingdom, which nearly entirely depended on the U.S. market to sell jeans and T-shirts.
Trump lessened the tariff to 15 percent in August. Between September 15-19, a Lesotho trade delegation visited the U.S.
The delegation headed by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Business Development, Mokhethi Shelile, reported news conference late on Wednesday that they had met with U.S. officials in charge of AGOA in the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee.
Mokhethi Shelile said, “They all agreed that AGOA has to be extended and they promised us that by November or December [at] the latest, it will be extended by a year.”
AGOA is set to end on September 30, and firms that have benefited from it have threatened that anything can go wrong if it immediately means job losses and the closing down of factories.
According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Lesotho is eligible to receive textile and apparel benefits under AGOA. Trade between the U.S. and Lesotho amounted to $276 million in 2024, which is an increase of 4.6 percent compared to the past year. A spokesperson at the White House did not reply to a request for comment immediately.
Mokhethi Shelile adds, “We will be … monitoring closely … that the extension comes into force as promised, because if it doesn’t, we are risking losing more jobs.”
Democrats’ spokesperson on the Senate Finance Committee, who are led by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, states, “The Trump administration hasn’t informed Finance Committee Democrats [of] its position on renewing AGOA. Ranking Member Wyden continues to support renewing the program.”
