Ethiopia on verge of losing access to lucrative US trade program over human rights violations

Ethiopia will lose access to a lucrative US trade program due to human rights violations unless it takes significant steps toward ending the ongoing conflict and alleviating the humanitarian crisis by the start of 2022, senior administration officials said Tuesday.

President Joe Biden has determined that Ethiopia is out of compliance with the eligibility requirements of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) "for gross violations of internationally recognized human rights," he said in a message to Congress Tuesday.

The Ethiopian government must take "urgent action" by January 1 in order to remain in the program, which grants eligible sub-Saharan African nations duty-free access to the US market for thousands of products.