As the United States seeks to deepen its relations with African nations and counter the influence of adversaries like Russia and China, it faces a difficult question: How does it respond when countries do things that run counter to Washington’s stated commitment to democracy and Human Rights;
That tension built on a major trade conference between the US and African countries that began in Johannesburg this week after President Biden announced he was suspension of four nations from a critical trade program aimed at promoting economic development in Africa.
One of the suspended countries, Uganda, which passed a law this year requiring life imprisonment for anyone involved in same-sex sex, sent a delegation to the conference to support its reinstatement, the Development and Opportunity Act of Africa or AGOA. Mr Biden wrote to Congress that Uganda had been removed because it “engaged in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights”.
Susan Muhwezi, a trade adviser to the Ugandan president, rejected this statement, describing Uganda as an “island of peace”.
“If we’re supposed to be friends, to do business with each other,” he said in a conference interview, “I think there are better ways to express your concerns than to say, ‘I’m the boss and I have to punch. He added that Uganda’s removal from the program would harm the livelihoods of traders in cotton, coffee, vanilla and other products that accounted for the $12.3 million in exports the East African nation made through the US trade program. last year.
“Isn’t that also a violation of human rights in a different way?” she said, referring to the US decision to suspend Uganda from the program.
Once the suspensions take effect on January 1, the trade program will involve 31 countries. It was signed into law in 2000 and is open to nations in sub-Saharan Africa, allowing them to export certain goods to the US without having to pay tariffs. Last year, the U.S imported about $30 billion worth of goods through AGOA.
The tension between promoting democracy and human rights, on the one hand, and maintaining influence abroad is nothing new for the US. It is very much alive in Africa today with competition between the US, Russia and China, where Moscow and Beijing promise no-strings-attached aid and security. But for the US, the democracy promotion campaign is, among other things, an essential selling point to a domestic audience that has become increasingly isolationist in recent years.
Gabon and Niger were suspended by Mr. Biden after the coups that violated the trade program’s eligibility requirements. The president of the Central African Republic, which was also suspended, pushed a measure this year to abolish presidential term limits. Wagner, the Russian mercenary group, runs the country’s security.
To maintain eligibility in the program, countries must meet certain conditionsincluding supporting democracy, protecting human rights, and not acting against US national security and foreign policy interests.
They can be suspended for committing “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” or for supporting terrorism and efforts to eradicate human rights. Enforcing these requirements comes with difficult calculations for the United States.
The Biden administration has emphasized the importance of African nations participating as equals. But in taking punitive action, Washington risks being seen as lecturing or trying to impose its values ββon countries that have a painful and not-too-distant experience of colonial rule.
While those suspensions were the result of violations that the White House found to be egregious, Biden administration officials say they are trying to be sensitive to those concerns. Judd Devermont, a top White House adviser on African affairs, said the administration has prioritized “bringing more complexity to our relationship” in Africa and accepting that it will disagree with countries on some issues.
“When we have differences, we should lean in and talk about them,” he said. “By the way, that’s what we do with other countries in other parts of the world.”
Even some US lawmakers have argued that the US should be careful about withdrawing privileges from African countries that might violate the standards it has set. Doing so, they argue, could end up punishing ordinary people for the actions of their governments and could cause African nations on the continent to flock to rival countries that would pose an even greater threat to American interests.
Barring “egregious violations of principle or undermining of core American interests,” it’s important for countries to stay in the trade program for “businessmen and small businessmen in the country and the overall relationship,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D- Maryland.
At the same time, the Biden administration is facing pressure from lawmakers, especially Republicans, to scrutinize even more closely the nations that benefit from AGOA.
They point to the conference’s host country, South Africa, which just six months ago was in a tense standoff with Washington over claims by the US ambassador that South Africa supplied Russia with weapons for the Ukraine war.
Republican Senators James Reese of Idaho, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Tim Scott of South Carolina issued separate statements this week criticizing the Biden administration’s decision to proceed with the conference in South Africa, while issues surrounding Russia’s support from South Africa remain unresolved.
They also criticized South Africa’s response to the war in Gaza, noting that South Africa’s foreign minister spoke by phone with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and visited Iran, where she met with President Ibrahim Raishi. Hamas, which controls Gaza and orchestrated the October 7 attack on Israel, is Iran’s proxy.
“The administration’s decision to host the AGOA forum in South Africa and maintain South Africa’s eligibility for AGOA benefits in 2024 jeopardizes the integrity of the program and our trade preferences,” Mr. Risch wrote.
The trade program is set to expire in 2025, when Congress must decide whether to reauthorize it. While Mr. Rees said he supports renewing it, he suggested that lawmakers might require significant changes to the program, which could lead to a difficult reauthorization process.
The White House likely concluded that whatever sins South Africa had committed, the collapse of the relationship because of it was not worth it, several analysts said in recent interviews.
South Africa is the biggest beneficiary of the trade pact, with $3 billion in exports last year. It is one of the continent’s most advanced economies, and the US sees it as an important ally with influence over other African nations.
South Africa has brokered peace efforts in several conflicts across Africa, helping to create a stability that the US sees as vital to its own interests, in part because it can prevent the spread of extremist groups.
Teddy Ruge, a Ugandan business owner, was on a plane en route to Johannesburg when Mr Biden announced the suspensions. Mr. Ruge is the founder of Raintree Farms, which exports to the US moringa, of plant origin powder used in many health products.
Sitting at the conference behind a booth draped in the Ugandan flag, he said he felt embarrassed that everyone was looking at them as if they were “the bad kid”.