Recalibrating US Economic Engagement with Africa in Light of the Implementation of the AfCFTA and the Final Days of the Current AGOA Authorization

The Africa for which the 2000 African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was promulgated does not exist. This is the case for at least three reasons. One, the emergence of China’s development cooperation model which has left behind roads, rails, bridges and airports, and investments in mining, fishing, and manufacturing has opened the eyes of African policymakers and leaders to the possibility of an alternative way that is characterized less by sharing best practices and developing strategies, and more by something that Africans can see and touch. The second major shift is the birth of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA)—a groundbreaking force for integration with the potential to create an industrial revolution across Africa and resist the types of deals that keep the continent at the bottom of global value chains. Third, the import of Agenda 2063—Africa’s development blueprint that simply did not exist  when AGOA was promulgated.

With the opportunity for AGOA renewal in 2025, the United States has a chance to establish a truly solid development-oriented partnership emphasizing industrial and trade capacity development and collaboration to overcome the foundational bottlenecks that hinder the realization of AGOA’s potential. This publication seeks to demonstrate how this can be done.

This paper is part of the US-Africa Leaders Summit series. The full series is available to read here. 

The Brown Capital Management Africa Forum is a premier platform for substantive and solutions-oriented dialogue on key trade, investment, and sustainable development issues in Africa, and in US-Africa relations. Launched in 2015, the Africa Forum conducts research on key development issues and provides a high-level platform for convening Africa, US, and international business leaders, policymakers and subject matter experts in forward-leaning policy-oriented dialogue aimed at advancing sustainable development in Africa and fostering mutually beneficial economic relations between Africa and the United States. The Brown Capital Management Africa Forum is made possible by the generous financial support of Brown Capital Management, LLC (Baltimore, Maryland).