Uganda on Wednesday criticised a US move to eject it and other African countries from accessing a tariff-free trade programme, saying the action was to punish African countries that are resisting the imposition of the West’s cultural values.
US President Joe Biden said on Monday that he intended to end the participation of Uganda, Gabon, Niger and the Central African Republic in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade program.
Uganda and Central Africa Republic would be blocked because of “gross violations” of internationally recognised human rights, Biden said in a letter to the speaker of the US House of Representatives.
Odrek Rwabwogo, special presidential adviser to President Yoweri Museveni, said that with the trade move the US was telling Ugandans that “their already slim prospects for economic prosperity are contingent on whether they vote in line with the values of whoever happens to hold high office in the US, not their own”.
Source : Times
