[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 103 (Friday, May 30, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23103-23105]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-09795]
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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
[Docket Number USTR-2025-0012]
Request for Comments and Notice of Public Hearing Concerning the
Annual Review of Country Eligibility for Benefits Under the African
Growth and Opportunity Act for Calendar Year 2026
AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.
ACTION: Request for comments and notice of public hearing.
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SUMMARY: The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is
announcing the initiation of the annual review of the eligibility of
sub-Saharan African countries to receive the benefits of the African
Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The AGOA Implementation Subcommittee
of the Trade Policy Staff Committee (AGOA TPSC Subcommittee) is
requesting written comments for this review and will conduct a public
hearing on this matter. In developing its recommendations on AGOA
country eligibility for calendar year 2026, the AGOA TPSC Subcommittee
will consider written comments, written testimony, and oral testimony.
DATES:
June 30, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for submission of pre-
hearing written comments, requests to testify, and written testimony,
regarding the eligibility of countries to be designated as beneficiary
sub-Saharan African countries.
July 18, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. EDT: The AGOA TPSC Subcommittee will
convene a public hearing to receive oral testimony related to sub-
Saharan African countries' eligibility for AGOA benefits, at USTR's
building located at 1724 F Street NW, Washington DC. Please be sure to
bring required identification if you wish to attend or participate in
the hearing.
July 31, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. EDT: Deadline for submission of post-
hearing written comments, briefs, supplementary materials, and written
statements related to the public hearing.
ADDRESSES: The AGOA TPSC Subcommittee strongly prefers electronic
submissions made through the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov (Regulations.gov). Follow the instructions for
submitting written comments and testimony and requests to testify in
sections III and IV below, using Docket Number USTR-2025-0012. For
alternatives to on-line submissions, please contact Jeremy Streatfeild,
Director of African Affairs, Office of African Affairs, in advance of
the relevant deadline at [email protected] or
202.395.8642.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeremy Streatfeild, Director of
African Affairs, Office of African Affairs, at
[email protected] or 202.395.8642.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
AGOA (Title I of the Trade and Development Act of 2000, Pub. L.
106-200) (19 U.S.C. 2466a et seq.), as amended, and which currently is
set to expire on September 30, 2025, authorizes the President to
designate sub-Saharan African countries as beneficiaries eligible for
duty-free treatment for certain additional products not included for
duty-free treatment under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)
(Title V of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2461 et seq.) (1974 Act),
as well as for the preferential treatment for certain textile and
apparel articles. The President may designate a country as a
beneficiary sub-Saharan African country eligible for AGOA benefits if
he determines that the country meets the eligibility criteria set forth
in section 104 of AGOA (19 U.S.C. 3703) and section 502 of the 1974 Act
(19 U.S.C. 2462).
Section 104 of AGOA includes requirements that the country has
established or is making continual progress toward establishing, among
other things:
A market-based economy.
The rule of law.
Political pluralism.
The right to due process.
The elimination of barriers to U.S. trade and investment.
Economic policies to reduce poverty.
A system to combat corruption and bribery.
Protection of internationally recognized worker rights.
In addition, the country may not engage in activities that
undermine U.S. national security or foreign policy interests or engage
in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights. Section
502 of the 1974 Act provides for country eligibility criteria under
GSP. For a complete list of the AGOA eligibility criteria and a list of
the GSP criteria, see section 104 of the AGOA and section 502 of the
1974 Act.
Section 506A of the 1974 Act requires the President to monitor and
annually review the progress of each sub-Saharan African country in
meeting the
[[Page 23104]]
foregoing eligibility criteria in order to determine if a beneficiary
sub-Saharan African country should continue to be eligible, and if a
sub-Saharan African country that currently is not a beneficiary, should
be designated as a beneficiary. If the President determines that a
beneficiary sub-Saharan African country is not making continual
progress in meeting the eligibility requirements, the President must
terminate the designation of the country as a beneficiary sub-Saharan
African country. The President also may withdraw, suspend or limit the
application of duty-free treatment with respect to specific articles
from a country if the President determines that it would be more
effective in promoting compliance with AGOA eligibility requirements
than terminating the designation of the country as a beneficiary sub-
Saharan African country.
For 2025, the President designated the following 32 countries as
beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries:
1. Angola
2. Benin
3. Botswana
4. Cabo Verde
5. Chad
6. Comoros
7. Democratic Republic of Congo
8. Republic of Congo
9. Cote d'Ivoire
10. Djibouti
11. Eswatini
12. The Gambia
13. Ghana
14. Guinea-Bissau
15. Kenya
16. Lesotho
17. Liberia
18. Madagascar
19. Malawi
20. Mauritania
21. Mauritius
22. Mozambique
23. Namibia
24. Nigeria
25. Rwanda (AGOA apparel benefits suspended effective July 31, 2018)
26. Sao Tome & Principe
27. Senegal
28. Sierra Leone
29. South Africa
30. Tanzania
31. Togo
32. Zambia
The President did not designate the following sub-Saharan African
countries as beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries for 2025:
1. Burkina Faso
2. Burundi
3. Cameroon
4. Central African Republic
5. Equatorial Guinea (graduated from GSP)
6. Eritrea
7. Ethiopia
8. Gabon
9. Guinea
10. Mali
11. Niger
12. Seychelles (graduated from GSP)
13. Somalia
14. South Sudan
15. Sudan
16. Uganda
17. Zimbabwe
The AGOA TPSC Subcommittee requests written comments with respect
to the annual review of sub-Saharan African countries' eligibility for
AGOA benefits. The Secretary of Labor may consider comments related to
the child labor and forced labor criteria to prepare the U.S.
Department of Labor's report on child labor as required under section
504 of the 1974 Act.
II. Hearing Participation
The AGOA TPSC Subcommittee will convene a public hearing to receive
oral testimony related to sub-Saharan African countries' eligibility
for AGOA benefits on Friday, July 18, 2025, beginning at 10:00 a.m. EDT
at 1724 F Street NW, Washington, DC. To ensure participation, you must
submit requests to present oral testimony at the hearing and written
testimony before midnight on June 30, 2025, via Regulations.gov, using
Docket Number USTR-2025-0012. Instructions for submission are in
sections III and IV below. Remarks at the hearing will be limited to no
more than five minutes to allow for possible questions from the AGOA
TPSC Subcommittee. Because the hearing will be public, testimony should
not include any business confidential information (BCI).
The AGOA TPSC Subcommittee requests small businesses (generally
defined by the Small Business Administration as firms with fewer than
500 employees) or organizations representing small business members
that submit comments to self-identify as such, so that AGOA TPSC
Subcommittee may be aware of issues of particular interest to small
businesses.
III. Procedures for Written Submissions
To be assured of consideration, submit your pre hearing written
comments, requests to testify, and written testimony by the June 30,
2025, 11:59 p.m. EDT deadline, and submit post hearing written comments
by the July 31, 2025, 5:00 p.m. EDT deadline. All submission must be in
English. The AGOA TPSC Subcommittee strongly encourages submissions via
Regulations.gov, using Docket Number USTR-2025-0012.
To make a submission via Regulations.gov, enter Docket Number USTR-
2025-0012 in the `search for' field on the home page and click
`search.' The site will provide a search results page listing all
documents associated with this docket. Find a reference to this notice
by selecting `notice' under `document type' in the `refine documents
results' section on the left side of the screen and click the `comment'
link.
Regulations.gov allows users to make submissions by filling in a
`type comment' field or by attaching a document using the `upload file'
field. The AGOA TPSC Subcommittee prefers that you provide submissions
in an attached document and note `see attached' in the comment field on
the online submission form. The AGOA TPSC Subcommittee prefers
submissions in Microsoft Word (.docx) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf). If you
use an application other than those two, please indicate the name of
the application in the `type comment' field.
At the beginning of your submission or on the first page (if an
attachment), include the following text: (1) 2026 AGOA Eligibility
Review; (2) the relevant country or countries; and (3) whether the
submission is a comment, request to testify, or written testimony.
Submissions should not exceed 30 single-spaced, standard letter-size
pages in 12-point type, including attachments. Please do not attach
separate cover letters to electronic submissions; rather, include any
information that might appear in a cover letter in the submission
itself. Similarly, to the extent possible, please include any exhibits,
annexes or other attachments in the same file as the submission itself,
not as separate files. You will receive a tracking number upon
completion of the submission procedure at Regulations.gov. The tracking
number is confirmation that Regulations.gov received your submission.
Keep the confirmation for your records. USTR is not able to provide
technical assistance for Regulations.gov.
For further information on using Regulations.gov, please consult
the resources provided on the website by clicking on `How to Use
Regulations.gov' on the bottom of the home page. The AGOA TPSC
Subcommittee may not consider submissions that you do not make in
accordance with these instructions.
If you are unable to provide submissions as requested, please
contact Jeremy Streatfeild, Director of African Affairs, Office of
African Affairs, in
[[Page 23105]]
advance of the deadline at [email protected] or
202.395.8642, to arrange for an alternative method of transmission.
USTR will not accept hand-delivered submissions. General information
concerning USTR is available at www.ustr.gov.
IV. Business Confidential Information (BCI) Submissions
If you ask the AGOA TPSC Subcommittee to treat information you
submit as BCI, you must certify that the information is business
confidential and you would not customarily release it to the public.
For any comments submitted electronically that contain BCI, the file
name of the business confidential version should begin with the
characters `BCI.' You must clearly mark any page containing BCI with
`BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL' at the top of that page. Filers of submissions
containing BCI also must submit a public version of their submission
that will be placed in the docket for public inspection. The file name
of the public version should begin with the character `P.'
V. Public Viewing of Review Submissions
USTR will post written submissions in the docket for public
inspection, except properly designated BCI. You can view submissions at
Regulations.gov by entering Docket Number USTR-2025-0012 in the search
field on the home page.
Edward Marcus,
Chair of the Trade Policy Staff Committee, Office of the United States
Trade Representative.
[FR Doc. 2025-09795 Filed 5-29-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3390-F4-P