Stronger trade relationships with Africa benefit both American workers and African economies more effectively than foreign assistance alone.
That was the simple but strategically important idea behind The African Growth and Opportunity Act, known as AGOA, signed into law in 2000 with bipartisan support. AGOA reflected an understanding that economic growth, private sector investment and expanded trade create durable partnerships between the United States and African nations.
The program granted eligible sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to U.S. markets for thousands of products, while also tying participation to governance reforms, market openness, anti-corruption measures and commitments to rule of law and transparency. Twenty-five years later, that logic still holds.
The program supports U.S. businesses and workers, advances the core American ideals of accountability and opportunity, and bolsters partner economies. President Donald Trump temporarily reauthorized AGOA through Dec. 31, and the administration is currently reviewing how AGOA should evolve to better support American interests and align more closely with broader national security goals. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative recently sought public comment as it considers modernization of the program.
There is room to sharpen AGOA’s focus on measurable benefits for American workers and industries while recognizing Africa’s growing economic and geopolitical importance. But while the administration does that, it’s important to remember that the review comes at an important moment, both for the United States and for Africa.
Africa is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies and youngest populations. Demand for infrastructure, technology, manufacturing, agriculture, energy, and logistics is growing across the continent.
At the same time, strategic competition has intensified. China, in particular, has dramatically expanded its footprint across Africa through infrastructure financing, mining investments, telecommunications networks, and strategic port access. Russia also continues to seek political and economic influence in key regions.
AGOA is not simply a trade preference program. It is a strategic instrument of global engagement that benefits Americans here at home.
For more than two decades, AGOA has supported American economic interests by helping create export markets for U.S. businesses, strengthening supply chains tied to American manufacturing and expanding opportunities for U.S. agriculture, transportation, and logistics companies. The program has also supported supply chain diversification, an increasingly important national security priority as the United States seeks to reduce overdependence on Chinese manufacturing and supply networks.
The program’s governance requirements are central to the program’s success, as well.
AGOA has long reinforced the principle that economic partnerships should be connected to accountability, transparency, and market reforms. This reflects enduring American interests and values of opportunity while creating more stable and predictable business environments for investment and trade.
The United States can focus AGOA on enhancing benefits for American workers and industries while modernizing the program to reflect Africa’s economic and geopolitical importance. These are mutually reinforcing goals, and a natural progression for this valuable program that has paid results for Americans, and people across the African continent.
The United States has often approached Africa through the lens of aid, humanitarian response or crisis management. And while these tools remain important, AGOA has represented something different from the beginning: a recognition that long-term relationships are stronger when built around shared growth.
That remains true today. For the United States, AGOA supports markets, jobs, supply chains, and long-term strategic influence in a region that will play an increasingly important role in the global economy.
For eligible African countries, AGOA supports investment, industrial growth and greater integration into the international markets.
At a moment when competition is accelerating and U.S. adversaries are sharpening their efforts to claim global leadership, AGOA remains one of the clearest demonstrations that the United States is invested in Africa’s future, not simply as a development challenge, but as an economic and strategic partner.
That is a relationship worth strengthening for the next generation.
