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Message: [QUOTE="Queen, post: 84525, member: 27"] The US House just extended AGOA for three years because China is eating America's lunch across Africa. Representatives voted 340 to 54 on the trade pact extension, signaling Washington wants to keep economic ties alive amid fierce competition with Beijing. China locked down its spot as Africa's biggest trading partner, lender, and infrastructure builder, while the Trump administration pulled back critical aid programs and ditched UN institutions that handle Global South issues. The bill heads to the Senate next. AU Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf called AGOA a cornerstone of US-Africa economic relations that props up industrialization, jobs, and regional supply chains. He said the program served as a cooperation bridge and friendship symbol for over two decades. Relations between America and African states took hits from visa freezes, yanked USAID development cash, and extra tariffs that tanked US influence. China jumped into that vacuum hard. Beijing gave all 53 African countries with formal ties zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent of tariff lines through concessional loans, infrastructure deals, and steady diplomacy. China pitched itself as a long-term partner without strings attached, citing a non-interference policy and mutual friendship. The 2025 FOCAC announcement of duty-free and quota-free market access for African goods hammered home that shift. Kenya's Foreign Affairs CS Musalia Mudavadi praised the House vote but stressed talks focused on expanding the Kenya-US Strategic Partnership beyond trade. Trade CS Lee Kinyanjui said the extension kills uncertainty threatening export sectors. Textile and apparel industries in Export Processing Zones employ over 80,000 workers directly and 250,000 indirectly, who depend on duty-free US market access. Kinyanjui announced Kenya scored an early harvest preliminary deal with China, granting 98.2 percent zero-duty market access for Kenyan goods the next day. [/QUOTE]

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