CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has extended a 26-year-old free-trade agreement with African countries that was left in doubt last year when his administration allowed it to expire while enforcing his policy of reciprocal tariffs.
Trump on Tuesday signed into law an extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
But the extension is short-term, lasting only until Dec. 31. The trade office said the agreement, which gives eligible sub-Saharan African nations duty-free access to the U.S. market for some products, would be modified to account for tariffs the U.S. has imposed on other countries as part of the Republican president’s America First policy.
The agreement is key to many African countries that feared it would be another economic blow following the new tariffs and cuts to U.S. aid under Trump.
Here is what to know.
AGOA was introduced in 2000 under former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Only some nations are eligible, and the U.S. can remove countries that fail to meet requirements including establishing market-based economies or upholding democratic standards and human rights. The East African nation of Uganda was removed in 2024 by the Biden administration for enacting a strict anti-gay law that the U.S. called a human rights violation.
The agreement allows some 1,800 products to be exported to the U.S. duty-free, including crude oil, cars and car parts, clothing, textiles and agricultural produce. It drives much of the trade between the U.S. and Africa, which was valued at more than $100 billion in 2024 by the U.S. trade office.
AGOA included 34 African countries when the Trump administration allowed the expiration at the end of September, with many businesses in those nations claiming the end of the deal would endanger tens of thousands of jobs.
The extension until the end of 2026 is short compared to the 10-year extension agreement when it previously came up for renewal in 2015.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement Tuesday that the Trump administration would work with Congress "to modernize the program to align with President Trump’s America First trade policy” without giving details of possible changes.
South Africa, the continent's most advanced economy and one of the biggest beneficiaries of AGOA, said it welcomed the renewal but was concerned by the short-term nature of the extension. Minister of Trade and Industry Parks Tau told South African news outlet News24 that he hoped the U.S. would soon “provide certainty” of the AGOA details.
The Trump administration has applied political pressure on sub-Saharan Africa's two biggest economies, South Africa and Nigeria, leaving them uncertain where they might fit into a renewed form of the agreement that is highly important to both nations.
Trump has criticized the South African government as anti-American and made baseless claims that a white minority group in the country is being violently persecuted. The U.S. has applied 30% tariffs, among the highest in the world, raising fears that its biggest African trade partner would be removed from AGOA due to the diplomatic fallout.
Similarly, U.S. ties with Nigeria have been strained over Trump’s allegations that Christians are being persecuted in Africa’s most populous country, claims officials say are inaccurate.
Trump's America First policy has been especially hard on Africa by cutting billions of dollars for the now-dismantled United States Aid Agency while imposing tariffs on small or struggling economies. Some African countries such as Lesotho have said the double blow has been almost impossible to bear.
The U.S. has moved to renegotiate assistance methods for Africa, including a series of bilateral health agreements announced in recent months. The pledges of assistance also commit African nations to invest in their own health systems, which the Trump administration says will improve self-sufficiency and cut waste.
The U.S. has called on African nations to remove trade barriers to American imports. The U.S. trade office said AGOA would follow the America First policy and “must demand more from our trading partners.”
The aggressive trade policies have pushed some African nations to enhance ties with other countries or regions, especially China, which is already the continent's largest trading partner.
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
FILE - A factory worker arrange garments at United Aryan EPZ Limited in Ruaraka on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya Friday, March. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku, file)
FILE - Workers load a truck with the last boxes filled with clothes from the empty Tzicc clothing factory following the threat of U.S.-imposed tariffs in Maseru, Lesotho, July 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen, File)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A new Tennessee law has eased up on two longstanding financial hurdles for people with felony sentences who want their voting rights back, including a unique requirement among states that they must have fully paid their child support costs.
The Republican-supermajority Legislature approved the Democratic-sponsored change, which now lets people prove they have complied for the last year with child support orders, such as payment plans. The legislation also unties the payment of all court costs from voting rights restoration.
Advocates for years have sought various changes to Tennessee’s voting rights restoration system at the statehouse and in court. They say loosening these two rules marks the biggest rollback of restrictions to voting rights restoration in decades.
“This is huge and this is history,” said Keeda Haynes, senior attorney for the advocacy group Free Hearts led by formerly incarcerated women like her.
Most Republicans voted for it and Democrats supported it unanimously. The law took effect immediately upon Republican Gov. Bill Lee's signature last week.
“I think people are at a point where they want to just remove the barriers out of the way and allow people to be fully functional members of society,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a bill sponsor.
In 2023 and early 2024, the state shelved a paperwork process that didn’t require going to court and decided gun rights were required to restore the right to vote. Election officials said a court ruling made the changes necessary, though voting rights advocates said officials misinterpreted the order.
Last year, lawmakers untangled voting and gun rights. But voting rights advocates opposed some of the bill's other provisions, such as keeping the process in the courts, where costs can rack up if someone isn't ruled indigent.
Easing up on the financial requirements uncommonly split legislative Republicans. For instance, Senate Speaker Randy McNally voted against it, while House Speaker Cameron Sexton supported it, noting that people aren't getting forgiveness on making their payments.
“They need to continue paying that, and as long as they do, then there’s a possibility (to restore their voting rights)," Sexton said. "I really think that’s harder for people to argue against than maybe what something else was.”
Republican Rep. Johnny Garrett, who voted no, said in committee his vote would hinge on whether “there still can be an (child support) arrearage owed beyond that 12 months.”
For some, backed-up child support payments could reach hundreds or thousands of dollars, and court costs could be hundreds or thousands more, said Gicola Lane, Campaign Legal Center's Restore Your Vote community partnership senior manager.
Advocates credited their narrowed focus, omitting goals such as automatic restoration of rights, no longer tying restitution payments to voting rights, or offering a path for certain people to restore their right who are permanently disenfranchised, including those convicted of voter fraud or most murder charges.
The bill passed the Senate last year and the House this year.
Lawmakers gave the child support requirement final passage in 2006 within an overhaul bill that also created a voting rights restoration process outside of court. Critics said the child support rule penalized impoverished parents.
Democrats were then narrowly hanging onto legislative leadership in both chambers. Republicans held a slim Senate majority but GOP defectors voted for a Democratic speaker.
Last year marked the dismissal of a nearly five-year-old federal lawsuit over Tennessee’s voting-rights restoration system. Free Hearts and the Campaign Legal Center represented plaintiffs in the long-delayed case, which saw some election policy changes along the way.
Roughly 184,000 people have completed supervision for felonies and their offenses don't preclude them from restoring their voting rights, according to a plaintiffs expert’s 2023 estimate in the lawsuit. About one in 10 were estimated to have outstanding child support payments, and more than six in 10 owed court courts, restitution or both, the expert said.
Both Republican and Democratic-led states have eased the voting rights restoration process in recent years. Some states have added complexities.
In Florida, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for people with felony convictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by requiring payment of fines, fees and court costs.
Voting rights are automatically restored upon release in nearly half of states. In 15 others, it occurs after parole, probation or a similar period and sometimes requires paying outstanding court costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Maine and Vermont, people with felonies keep their voting rights in prison, the NCSL says.
Ten other states including Tennessee require additional government action. Virginia ’s governor must intervene to restore voting rights of people convicted of felonies. In some states, including Tennessee, certain conviction types render someone ineligible.
However, Virginia lawmakers this year have passed a proposed state constitutional amendment to ask voters whether they want automatic voting rights restoration after someone is released from prison. Kentucky lawmakers have proposed a similar change for voters' consideration that would automatically restore voting rights after certain completed sentences, including probation.
FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
