Trump tariffs may call time on AGOA free trade bill
The U.S. State Department has announced President Donald Trump’s senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, Massad Boulos, as its senior adviser for Africa.
As part of the new role, Boulos, the father-in-law to Trump’s daughter, Tiffany, will travel later this week to Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda to meet with government officials and business leaders in addition to “advancing efforts for durable peace in the eastern DRC and promote US private sector investment in the region,” the State Department said.
Despite the first appointment by his son’s father-in-law, Trump, Boulos has had little to do with the Mideast file and has primarily been working on issues related to Africa in recent weeks.
Recall that the Trump-Vance Transition Team had come out in strong defence of the Nigerian-based Boulos when he was earlier picked by Trump as his senior adviser on Arab and Middle-East Affairs, dismissing media attacks on him as not sufficiently exposed for the top job as fake news.
Boulos, was until then the Managing Director of SCOA Nigeria Plc. He had been tagged as a truck salesman among other things on account of his role as head of SCOA Nigeria.
Boulos has degrees in both business and law and listed SCOA Nigeria PLC, a member of the FADOUL Group and a well-known conglomerate that exclusively represented numerous global brands for decades as part of the Boulos family group companies that have been very successful in the Nigerian market providing high-end products and specialised services to the largest firms in the country.
This is as the round of tariffs due to be imposed by the United States across the world today, April 2, signals the end of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) according to several economists in Africa.
Many governments in the region are working on an assumption that the tariff reliefs under AGOA won’t operate between now and the law’s review by the US Congress in September.
The Center for Global Development, a Washington-based think tank, estimates that AGOA costs the U.S. about US$250 million a year in foregone tariffs or about 2% of US aid to Africa before the recent cuts. The law was introduced by George W Bush’s administration in 2000. It gives over 30 African states tariff and quota-free access to the US market.
