Seven of Africa’s largest exporting economies — Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Angola, and others — will face a 12.5% tariff on goods entering the United States under a sweeping new trade policy that President Donald Trump has justified as a response to inadequate forced-labour prevention in global supply chains.
The measures, issued under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 — a US law that grants the president broad authority to impose tariffs in response to unfair trade practices — cover imports from 60 economies in total.
The White House said an investigation found that many trading partners had failed to adequately prevent goods made with forced labour from entering their supply chains, creating what Washington described as an unfair competitive disadvantage for American workers.
None of Africa’s major exporters was included in the group of 17 economies receiving a preferential 10% rate. That lower tier includes Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The policy also includes special three-year tariff-rate quotas for Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Malaysia, designed to encourage greater use of US-made textiles and cotton.
The new measures cover virtually all imports from affected economies, though Washington has provided exemptions for products deemed critical to US supply chains or where tariffs could trigger broader economic disruptions. No sector-specific breakdowns were provided in the presidential memorandum.
African exporters among the hardest hit
The timing is significant. Many African governments have been actively working to deepen trade ties with the United States, and the new tariff regime lands as those efforts are still taking shape.
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) — the preferential trade framework that has long underpinned US-Africa trade relations — has faced mounting uncertainty, and the latest measures add further pressure on exporters across the continent.
With no African economy qualifying for the lower 10% rate, the continent’s exporters face a uniform cost disadvantage relative to several Asian and North American peers.
For economies such as Nigeria and South Africa — two of the continent’s largest — the 12.5% duty applies across a broad import base, though the precise sectoral impact will depend on the exemptions Washington ultimately applies.
The policy represents a significant escalation in Trump’s use of Section 301 as a trade instrument, extending its reach well beyond its traditional application against specific unfair trade practices by individual countries and into a broader, labour-standards-linked framework affecting dozens of economies simultaneously.
