Swaziland is desperate not to be removed from the list of AGOA beneficiaries. It has appealed to the US government to extend the grace period for the kingdom to meet the stipulated benchmarks. 

Swaziland will lose its AGOA membership from January 2015. Thousands of textile workers are in danger of losing their jobs. Employees of institutions whose main business was to export to the US courtesy of AGOA will be the major losers. Approved by Congress in 2000, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, provides duty-free access to the US market for qualifying apparel exports from Africa. It’s designed to stimulate light manufacturing in Africa in order to contribute to job creation, poverty reduction and greater industrialization. It is a step towards increasing African countries’ exports and strengthening their integration into the global economy. 

To qualify for AGOA a country must have a market-based economy and the rule of law. Trade barriers should be eliminated, and workers’ rights should be protected. In the case of Swaziland, the US is not convinced it has put in place sufficient protections for workers’ rights, human rights or security.