Africa

Home page

Africa

Uganda denounces U.S. plan to exclude it from duty-free trade programme

01 November 2023 20:04 (UTC +04:00)

Uganda on Wednesday criticised a U.S. move to eject it and other African countries from accessing a tariff-free trade program, saying the action was to punish African countries that are resisting the imposition of the West's cultural values, APA reports citing Reuters.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday that he intended to end the participation of Uganda, Gabon, Niger and the Central African Republic in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade program.

Uganda and Central Africa Republic would be blocked because of "gross violations" of internationally recognised human rights, Biden said in a letter to the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Odrek Rwabwogo, special presidential adviser to President Yoweri Museveni, said that with the trade move the U.S. was telling Ugandans that "their already slim prospects for economic prosperity are contingent on whether they vote in line with the values of whoever happens to hold high office in the U.S., not their own".