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Ethiopia will lose access to lucrative US trade program after CNN investigation – The Henry Club

December 24, 2021
Sezarr

The statement said Ethiopia violated Section 506a of the African Development and Opportunity Act (AGOA). This clause stipulates that eligible nations must not engage in “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights”. a move comes later CNN investigation earlier this year,
President Joe Biden formally announced the decision in a proclamation a month later informed Congress that he intends to terminate Ethiopia’s membership of the deal.

The termination notice, which also applies to Guinea and Mali, is effective January 1, 2022.

“Despite intense engagement between the United States and the governments of Ethiopia, Guinea and Mali, these governments have failed to address the United States’ concerns about compliance with the AGOA eligibility criteria,” Biden said.

CNN has widely reported on human rights abuses committed during the conflict, including detentions, sexual violence and killings that bear the hallmarks of the genocide – findings that prompted the administration to call on bipartisan lawmakers to act. has contributed to.

An investigation by CNN Released in early October found that the Ethiopian government has used the country’s major commercial airline, Ethiopian Airlines – a major AGOA beneficiary – to shuttle weapons to and from neighboring Eritrea during the war. Ethiopian Airlines said in a statement that it “strongly” denied the findings of the investigation.

Soon after the investigation, US officials told CNN they would review Ethiopia’s eligibility in 2022, the scheduled review point.

AGOA membership is worth millions of dollars worth of Ethiopia’s favorable market access. The act grants eligible countries duty-free access to the US market for more than 1,800 products out of 5,000 products that are already eligible for duty-free access.

In November, the conflict in Ethiopia passed a grim, one-year milestone. There have been repeated calls from the US and the international community for parties to the conflict, including the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Eritrean forces and the Tigre People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), to end the conflict.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler, Gianluca Mezzofor, Katie Polglas and Barbara Arvanitidis contributed reporting.

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