Trade Built to Last: Why Reauthorizing AGOA is Essential

Throughout my tenure as Chair of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, one thing has always been evident: trade works best when it is built on relationships, trust, and time.

Agreements are not simply ink on paper, but signals to workers, farmers, and businesses about how the United States is committed to showing up, year after year, as a reliable partner. This principle has guided America’s engagement with Sub-Saharan Africa for more than two decades since the African Growth and Opportunity Act, better known as AGOA was created.

Since its inception, AGOA has stood at the center of U.S. economic policy and commercial engagement. It shaped countless trade relationships while advancing America’s own national security interests by creating new supply chains for critical minerals. Unfortunately, AGOA expired last year, putting all of this progress in jeopardy. 

Recently, I took to the House floor to call on my colleagues to pass my African Growth and Opportunity Extension Act. By passing this critical legislation in the House we are now one step closer to reauthorizing this important program. 

Trade is a detailed and dynamic system involving more than 17,000 tariff lines, complex supply chains, and long-term investment decisions. Businesses, large and small, depend on predictability to plan, invest, and hire. When trade programs are allowed to lapse or drift into uncertainty, those decisions are delayed or abandoned altogether.

AGOA plays a vital role in ensuring the United States remains actively engaged in a region where influence is increasingly contested. We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines while the Chinese Communist Party, Russia, and other adversaries expand their economic and political footprint across the African continent.

As the Trump administration works to redefine America’s trade engagement with the world, AGOA can serve as a complementary policy which supports the broader goal of building fair, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial trade relationships. 

Let me be clear: Africa’s promise is immense. The continent is home to the world’s fastest-growing population and some of its most dynamic emerging markets. Unlocking its potential will require sustained, reliable, and forward-looking engagement. AGOA remains as one of the most effective tools the United States has to support engagement while advancing our own economic and strategic interests. 

This week’s House passage of the African Growth and Opportunity Extension Act was an encouraging step forward. It is a reminder of what is possible when Congress acts with purpose and bipartisan resolve. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to move this legislation swiftly to the president’s desk.

At the end of the day, AGOA is about more than trade preferences or tariff lines. It is about partnership, opportunity, and America’s role in a rapidly changing world. By renewing our commitment to AGOA, we reaffirm a simple but powerful idea: when the United States leads with consistency and cooperation, both we and our trading partners are stronger for it.