{"id":23371,"date":"2026-02-06T05:42:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T03:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/lesotho-textile-workers-hope-african-duty-free-deal-extension-heralds-us-trade-revival\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:10","slug":"lesotho-textile-workers-hope-african-duty-free-deal-extension-heralds-us-trade-revival","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/lesotho-textile-workers-hope-african-duty-free-deal-extension-heralds-us-trade-revival\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesotho, textile workers hope African duty-free deal extension heralds US trade revival"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Since she was laid off in October, after Lesotho lost tariff-free access to its vital United States (US) garments market, Matokelo Masenkane has got up early each morning to queue at the textile factory gates in search of casual work.<\/div>\n<div>She rarely finds any.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;It is even more painful taking the already little food from the house to eat while you queue, when you could have shared it with your kids,&#8221; the 36-year-old mother of three said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Lesotho, which has benefited from a longstanding preferential trade deal with the US, was at risk of losing this protection when the agreement, the African Growth and Opportunity Act expired in September.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an extension of AGOA, first enacted in 2000, through to December 31, 2026.<\/div>\n<div>The extension ended months of uncertainty over the programme, amid punishing tariffs imposed on countries across the world by Trump on &#8220;liberation day,&#8221; on April 2.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The expiry of AGOA, introduced to provide duty-free access to the US market for eligible Sub-Saharan African countries covering more than 1800 products, had put hundreds of thousands of African jobs at risk.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>For Lesotho, Africa&#8217;s most US-dependent exporter, it was a relief, though it merely kicked the uncertainty down the road.<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I&#8217;m optimistic that we will get something long term,&#8221; Lesotho&#8217;s Trade Minister Mokhethi Shelile told <i>Reuters<\/i>\u00a0in an interview at his office. &#8220;The one-year extension is not a conducive timeline for our businesses.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The textile industry is Lesotho&#8217;s leading export sector. Textile exports to the US under AGOA have made up about a tenth of the country&#8217;s around $2 billion gross domestic product.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In April, Lesotho initially got hit with Trump&#8217;s highest 50% tariff, but it was later reduced to 15% still tough for a country dependent on US consumers buying its clothes.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>US goods and services trade with Lesotho totalled $276 million in 2024.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We have to start working now to have the US provide us with a framework of a proper trade policy for Africa,&#8221; Shelile said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23372,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-23371","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"US goods and services trade with Lesotho totalled $276 million in 2024.","published_date":null,"news_description":"US goods and services trade with Lesotho totalled $276 million in 2024.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26357,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23371\/revisions\/26357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}