(Reuters) – The United States has excluded Burkina Faso from an Agoa trade deal over deep concerns over an “unconstitutional change”, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said on Sunday.
The US African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) provides African products with duty-free access to the US market under conditions, such as the removal of barriers to US trade and investment and progress in of political pluralism.
The transitional government in Burkina Faso has made a commitment to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to restore constitutional order by July 2024.
However, and despite the efforts of the ruling junta to counter the Islamist insurgency, the attacks continue.
According to the office of the US Trade Representative, Burkina Faso has not met the requirements of the Agoa law and the country will receive “clear benchmarks” to rejoin the trade agreement.
The junta’s foreign ministry reacted to the US decision on Monday by repeating that the timetable for returning to constitutional order had not changed.
Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world and fighters linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have killed thousands of civilians there, resulting in a major humanitarian crisis.
Nearly two million people have been displaced and reside in refugee camps, many of which are run by the United Nations (UN).
The ruling military junta on Friday ordered the UN resident coordinator, Barbara Manzi, to leave the country, a decision contested by the international organization.
If the government did not give an explanation at the time of the announcement, its Minister of Foreign Affairs then accused the coordinator of painting a negative picture of the security situation in the country.
(Report Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Thiam Ndiaga in Ouagadougou; French version Kate Entringer)
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