AGOA’s relief arrived with another deadline
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was restored on February *, ****, with retroactive effect from September **, ****. But the renewal runs only until December **, leaving *** days of statutory certainty as of July **.
For apparel, that is already a commercial deadline. Buyers are allocating orders that may be delivered after the programme expires, while factories considering automated cutting, worker training, renewable power or fabric capacity need visibility measured in years.
The short extension stabilised production in Lesotho after the **** disruption, according to the London-based Overseas Development Institute (ODI), but orders remain cautious and longer-term upgrading is still constrained. The risk is therefore not only a tariff shock on January *, ****. It is the capital expenditure that does not happen during ****.
