Terminating Ethiopia’s AGOA Eligibility Escalates Women Unemployment

November 5, 2021

BY MULATU BELACHEW

ADDIS ABABA- The U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to revoke Ethiopia’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) eligibility harms the latter’s economy and would leave millions of low-income citizens, mainly women, at risk, renowned economists said.

Accordingly, the scholars urged President Biden to reverse his decision to revoke Ethiopia’s AGOA privileges, pointing out that the measure doesn’t consider the latter’s objective reality and the underlying factors for the current situation in the country.

“Ethiopia before 2018 had hardly passed the test of human rights or political pluralism under repressive leadership of TPLF, while the U.S. government has never seriously questioned the country’s AGOA eligibility” said Mamo Mihretu, a Senior Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Ethiopia’s Chief Trade Negotiator. But why is the U.S. government seriously questioning now about Ethiopia’s AGOA eligibility?

Noting Ethiopia was deep in a state of war against Eritrea when the AGOA was launched in May 2000, Mamo stated that today the two most successful exporting industries under the AGOA, apparel and leather have employed about 200,000 people directly—80 percent are young women.

Small businesses operating within the broader ecosystem of these sectors—from raw material suppliers to service providers are estimated to support over one million low-income citizens. Hence, Ethiopia’s AGOA eligibility termination will make millions of low- income workers’ lives harsh which don’t have any direct or indirect relation with the northern conflict, the expert elaborated.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Horn of Africa Special Envoy Jeffrey Feltman admitted his understanding that the majority of Ethiopians have seriously opposed the return of Meles Zenawi-style rule. “As the former UN Focal Point for Election Assistance, I have concerns about elections but I believe that the Prosperity Party has significant support across Ethiopia as reflected in the election results. This means that the Prime Minister indeed has a mandate he can draw upon, and a new cabinet composed of hand-picked, trusted allies and partners. He was sworn in for a full, five-year term.”

In his twitter post, Milion Zewde, a well-known social media actor, highlighted that Ethiopia is at war against terrorism to ensure peace and security of its citizens.

As to him, the Biden Administration is trying to twist Ethiopia’s arms by putting economic sanctions and removing the latter from AGOA at this critical time. “The measure is completely unacceptable because it doesn’t help end the existing conflict.”

In view of this, the U.S. is expected to support the democratically and willingly elected government of Ethiopia rather than imposing sanctions and using AGOA as a political weapon which is unhelpful to end the conflict, Milion remarked.

The Ethiopian Herald November 5/2021