Many news outlets reported that US President Joe Biden is cutting Ethiopia out of a US trade program after the African nation continued to ignore the violations of human rights during the ongoing Tigray region war. Biden wrote a letter to Congress and said that Ethiopia was in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights. The US and United Nations said Ethiopian troops have continually prevented the passage of trucks carrying aid and food, in which many in the area have been deprived and a large number of people have starved to death. President Biden signed an executive order in September threatening to levy sanctions against Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed because of the conflict and fatal harm in the Tigray region if steps were not taken to stop the 11-month war.
President Biden said that Ethiopia had not met eligibility requirements to remain a beneficiary of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, setting a path for sanctions against Ethiopia. Point to be noted that the African Growth and Opportunity Act provides sub-Saharan African nationals duty-free access to the US if they meet certain requirements, such as eliminating barriers to US trade and investment. The sanctions go into effect on 1st January. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that her office would provide each country with clear benchmarks for a pathway toward reinstatement and the administration will work with them to achieve that objective. Biden’s announcement came as US Horn of Africa envoy Jeffrey Feltman informed reporters that the parties to the conflict don’t seem anywhere near a cease-fire or talks and called the humanitarian conditions in Tigray unacceptable.
Feltman said, “Without question, the situation is getting worse and worse, and frankly we are getting alarmed by the situation”. He was referring not only to the Ethiopian government blockade on the Tigray region but the Tigray forces’ push into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar in the past 4 months, widening the humanitarian crisis. Last month, a Foreign Policy magazine reported that Ethiopian chief trade negotiator Mamo Mihretu wrote, “Ethiopia’s fledgling manufacturing sector could face an existential threat and removal of AGOA eligibility would only worsen the condition of ordinary Ethiopians who have no connection to the Tigray conflict. Ethiopia exported goods under AGOA in 2000 worth a minuscule $28 million to the United States; in 2020, that figure rose roughly tenfold and stood at close to $300 million, nearly half of it under the AGOA”.