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US removes Ethiopia, Mali and Guinea from AGOA | Conflict Issues

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The US removes Ethiopia, Mali and Guniea from the free trade program due to recent human rights abuses and terrorist attacks.

The United States has banned Ethiopia, Mali, and Guinea from accessing tax-free trade because of human rights abuses and recent shooting.

In a statement on Saturday, the US Secretary of State (USTR) said it had expelled the three countries from the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) “because of the actions of each government in violation of the AGOA law”.

He said the US was “deeply affected” by gross violation about the internationally recognized human rights exercised by the Ethiopian government and other parties amidst the growing conflict in northern Ethiopia “, as well as” unconstitutional changes in government in Guinea and Mali “.

There were no recent comments from Washington’s ambassadors of the three African countries.

The AGOA trade policy gives sub-Saharan Africa the opportunity to travel to the US for free if they meet certain requirements, such as removing US trade barriers and its storage and political progress.

By 2020, 38 countries were eligible for AGOA.

In a statement on Saturday, the USTR said Ethiopia, Mali and Guinea could join the agreement if they comply with the terms of the law.

“Each country has clear signs of a recovery process and the Government will work with their governments to achieve that goal,” it said.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced in November that Ethiopia had stopped trading in AGOA for human rights abuses in the north of the country.

The war in the Tigray region of Ethiopia began in November 2020 between a heated dispute between the Tigrayan leadership and Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy. Thousands of people were killed in the 13-month war, of which about 400,000 were killed. starvation at Tigray alone.

The conflict has also disrupted the region, sending thousands of refugees to Sudan, dragging Ethiopian troops into war-torn Somalia and deploying troops from neighboring Eritrea.

The US idea of ​​suspending Ethiopian trade threatens the country’s textile industry, which offers fashion all over the world, and the country hopes to become a lightweight manufacturing hub.

It also adds to the pressure on the economy to cope with the effects of conflict, the coronavirus epidemic, and rising inflation.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Trade said in November it was “deeply saddened” by Washington’s declaration, saying the move would restore economic benefits and unfairly disrupt the lives of women and children.



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