The United States House of Representatives has recently approved a three-year extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) until December 31, 2028, following its expiry on September 30, 2025.
Having passed the House, the bill now moves to the US Senate for approval and, thereafter, requires President Trump’s assent to become law.
This development has triggered misplaced nostalgia across the continent, creating the impression that AGOA’s extension signals a return to business as usual between Africa and the United States.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, was recently quoted as welcoming the move, saying it “will strengthen trade, investment and shared prosperity with African economies”.
This assumption is misguided.
AGOA was enacted on May 18, 2000 and was extended twice for five-year terms in 2005 and 2010. On June 29, 2015, President Barack Obama signed the AGOA Trade Preferences Extension Act into law, extending the arrangement for a further ten years, which ended on September 30, 2025.
In the run-up to its expiry, strong lobbying was undertaken to extend AGOA to 2041, yet only a three-year extension has been granted.
The critical question, therefore, is this: what can be achieved in three years that was not accomplished in the past 25?
I argued in this column last year that Tanzania has failed to maximise the utilisation of AGOA throughout its existence.
This extension should not be viewed as a long-term victory, but rather as a stopgap arrangement that ought to prompt a recalibration of trade relations with the United States, potentially on a reciprocal basis.
While the extension of AGOA, albeit for a short period, is a positive signal in US–Africa relations, Tanzania must look beyond the United States to secure long-term and sustainable economic growth.
Export destinations should be diversified by actively engaging other lucrative markets such as the European Union, India and China, which offers duty-free, quota-free market access to products from all African countries.
Tanzania should also leverage regional integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as a complementary strategy.
While AGOA provides access to the American market, AfCFTA opens up a vast continental market that can serve as a platform to scale production, build regional value chains and reduce dependency on external markets.
Beyond market diversification, Tanzania must diversify its export-product portfolio. The country has untapped potential in specialty agricultural products, processed foods and niche industrial goods that could gain traction in American consumer markets.
In conclusion, while the extension of AGOA to 2028 should not be regarded as a long-term success, it presents a limited but valuable opportunity for Tanzania to recalibrate its export strategy through market and product diversification, with the aim of building a more resilient and globally competitive economy.
