The Lesotho government has welcomed the extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which grants duty-free access to the US market for several African countries.
The extension of AGOA until 31 December 2026, signed into law by US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, provides temporary relief to exporters, but it falls short of expectations for a three-year renewal that would have offered certainty to investors and workers.
GroundUp has previously reported on job losses in Lesotho’s textile industry amid the uncertainty over US import tariffs and an end to AGOA.
South Africa is included in the extension, although US lawmakers are intent on removing the country from AGOA in the future.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Nyakallo Ntsinyi, spokesperson for the Lesotho Ministry of Trade, Industry and Business Development, said the extension provides for further engagement with the US on securing long-term market access for Lesotho’s exports.
She said the US remains one of the country’s key export destinations. While engaging with the US to strengthen that relationship, Lesotho is also exploring alternative markets.
Ambassador Jamieson Greer, the United States Trade Representative, said in a statement that the extension was part of a broader reassessment of AGOA, noting that, in line with Trump’s America First policy, the programme “must demand more from our trading partners and yield more market access for US businesses, farmers, and ranchers”.
Lesotho had hoped for a longer renewal after the US House of Representatives approved a three-year extension of AGOA on 12 January.
Lesotho, alongside Madagascar, Mauritius, and Tanzania, all major African AGOA exporting countries, held meetings with various US congressional committees last month to lobby for a three-year extension.
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Activists are increasingly focusing on mental health awareness and support in communities.
ShadowFax
Sudan: You have two cows. The southern one ran away because it contains more beef.
True Sweetness
A British man on safari walks into a bar far out in the reaches of a game reserve in Southern Africa, he stays at the bar for a while shooting the shit with the bartender and drinking like a fish, he offer to buy the barkeep a round and since no one else is within 2km of their small oasis of liquor the barkeep obliges. The englishman goes off to the bathroom to have a good old go at the porcelain, he\’s back and ready for a few more whiskeys. He\’s just sat down when suddenly in the distance he hears a scream. He looks over his shoulder and dismisses it as nothing, he turns to the barkeep and orders a drink, takes a sip and hears the scream again. He looks at the barkeep who just shrugs it off. A minute or two later he and the barman hear it again and go outside to take a look. They see a lone figure running towards them screaming, he spots them and lets out a cry, RUN!!!!! HE\”S COMING!!!!!
The barkeep and the Englishman both look at the terrified bedraggled sight before them, and try to calm him down, but he\’s completely inconsolable. They give him water and finally manage to get a word out of him but he struggles free from their grasp and run away screaming.
A few minutes later the same thing happens with a whole group of men running in and screaming, he\’s coming, he\’s coming the barkeep grabs hold of one of the men as he tries to sprint past the bar and tries to get information out of him, again no response other than terrified gibberish.
The barkeep and his customer are starting to get worried, they start to pack up before another group of horrified natives run up to the bar most of them flee but one tries to hide behind the bar, the barkeep pulls out a shotgun and points it at the terrified man\’s face, finally managing to coax some words out of him. \”He\’s coming for us, Vernon Koekemoer is coming for us, we have to hide!!! We have to get out of here.\” He gets up and tries to run but the barkeep grabs him, feeling trapped in a panic he grabs the barkeeps shotgun and blows his own head off. The Englishman and the barkeep look at each other starting to really panic now.
They look out of the window and off in the distance they see a tornado coming towards the bar, at the bottom of the tornado they see the hugest beast of a man they have ever seen, as he gets closer they spot that he is riding a rhinocerous and using a crocodile as a riding whip, with each smack of the crocodile across the back of the rhino the louder is screams and the faster it runs, the tornado following it getting ever larger.
The 2 look at each other and start to fortify their position, they\’ve got a gun and they\’re waaay to drunk to run, so they start piling bar stool and tables and anything they can get their hands on to make sure they\’ll be safe when he arrives. They\’re not gonna make it, they can see the man slowing down his rhino, by now the crocodile is nothing but reptile paste on the bruised rump of the half dead rhino, the rhino drops down dead from exhaustion and crashes to the ground right outside the bar the tornado loses it\’s last breath in a cloud of dust as the huge man crashes his way through the make shift barricade and charges up towards the bar where the 2 men have taken shelter, he grabs a bottle of the hardest liquor on the shelf and down the entire litre in 1 gulp, he peers over the bar sobbing and sees the 2 defenders cowering down behind the crates of beer, they look up at the mans\’ face and he stares at them with a look of complete and utter hopelessness, he stares at them for a half second and half screams, half sobs, \”Oh my god what are you still doing here!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!! Vernon Koekemoer is coming!!!!\”