President Biden said Ethiopia was in “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights”.
President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he has decided to cut Ethiopia from a US trade program, paving the way for further sanctions against the African nation for failing to end a nearly year-long war in the Tigre region. , resulting in a “gross violation”. human rights.
Mr Biden said in a letter to Congress that Ethiopia did not meet the eligibility requirements to remain a beneficiary of the African Development and Opportunity Act. The program gives sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to the United States, provided they meet certain requirements, including removing barriers to American trade and investment and making progress toward political pluralism.
Read also: Ethiopia orders emergency as Tigre forces threaten capital
The president said Ethiopia was in “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights”. Mr Biden also cited Guinea and Mali, who have experienced coups this year, in the letter for falling out of compliance.
The ban will be effective from January 1. The US Trade Representative, Catherine Tai, said in a statement that her office “will provide each country with clear criteria for a path toward restoration and that our administration will work with them to achieve that objective.”
The Ethiopian government openly lobbied against the move. “We are extremely disappointed by the threat of an AGOA withdrawal currently under consideration by the US government,” the trade ministry said in a statement, warning that it would reverse the significant economic gains in our country and unfairly affect and disproportionately affect women and children. will cause damages. Ethiopia will continue to do everything possible to correct any unintended or perceived mistakes.”
Mr Biden’s announcement on Thursday marked the anniversary of the war, and as US Horn of Africa envoy Jeffrey Feltman told reporters the sides of the conflict are “nowhere near” a ceasefire or talks and humanitarian conditions have been called. . Tigre “unacceptable.” Thousands of people have died in the war that started in November 2020.
Ethiopia’s government also declared a state of emergency on Tuesday as rival Tigre forces threatened to advance on the capital. After the United States seized control of the strategic cities of Dessi and Kombolcha in recent days, the national government remained dominant for a long time before Abiy took over, against any attempt to “encircle” the capital, Addis Ababa. Warned Tigre forces.
The US and the United Nations say Ethiopian officials have blocked trucks carrying food and other aid from entering Tigre. Millions of people have died of hunger, The Associated Press has been informed.
Mr Biden signed an executive order in September threatening to impose sanctions against Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other leaders involved in the conflict, which is now spreading to other regions of the country if the war ends. No immediate steps were taken for
“Without question, the situation is getting worse and worse, and clearly we are becoming increasingly concerned with the situation,” Mr Feltman said, referring not only to the Ethiopian government blockade on Tigre, but of Tigre forces. Also mentioned pushing into neighboring Amhara and Afar. areas, widening humanitarian crisis.
In recent months only 13% of the humanitarian aid needed has entered Tigre due to “deliberate” government sanctions, some food delivery partners have been forced to suspend their work, and due to “famine the body has already are consuming,” Mr. Feltman said. “No government can tolerate armed rebellion. We get that,” he said, but added that no government “should engage in mass starvation against civilians.”
Mr Feltman also warned that the US opposes any attempt by Tigre forces to “encircle” the Ethiopian capital, after fighter jets took control of the strategic cities of Daisy and Kombolcha over the past few days, allowing They are put in the position of a major going down. Highway towards the capital.
Ethiopia was one of Africa’s fastest growing economies in recent years, but war has stalled that momentum.
In a commentary last month in Foreign Policy magazine, Ethiopia’s chief trade negotiator Mamo Mihretu wrote that “Ethiopia’s budding manufacturing sector could face an existential threat” and that “the removal of AGOA entitlement would only worsen the condition of ordinary Ethiopians.” Who has nothing to do with Tigre. Confrontation.”
He noted that under the AGOA in 2000, Ethiopia “exported a small amount of goods to the United States of $28 million; in 2020, this figure increased almost tenfold and was close to $300 million, almost half of that under the AGOA. “
He stressed that removing Ethiopia from the AGOA “would deal a serious blow to the welfare of millions of low-income workers.”
Mesfin Tegenu, the chairman of the American-Ethiopian Public Affairs Committee, estimated that most of the low-income female workers would be lost with the immediate effect of about 200,000 jobs.
“On behalf of the one million members of the Ethiopian-American community, we call on the Administration to rethink,” Mr Mesfin said in a statement.
Special envoy Mr Feltman said at a retreat in Washington in June, Ethiopian officials were warned that Ethiopia’s relationship with the US was at a crossroads. That intersection, he said, “is behind us.”
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