Introduction 

In 2021, the Biden administration relaunched the Trump-era Prosper Africa initiative as the Prosper Africa Build Together Campaign, a targeted effort to elevate and deepen the U.S. commitment to trade with countries across the African continent.

U.S. Dollar
U.S. Dollar

The revamped strategy connects American and African businesses and investors with new trade and investment opportunities. Key sectors being targeted include clean energy and climate-smart solutions, health, and digital technology. Through the initiative, the U.S. is promising to help drive billions of dollars of investment into Africa and to work toward equitable access to the benefits of trade and investment. It also envisages harnessing the power of small businesses, especially those led by women and members of the African diaspora.

A good trade pact should be truly multilateral — unlike, for example, the prevailing U.S.–Africa trade arrangement, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which is a unilateral U.S. government policy. A truly multilateral pact would recognize African leaders as equal partners and ensure they have the opportunity to properly engage in U.S.–Africa trade negotiations. Anything short of this would be counter-productive for one or both parties.

For instance, a poorly designed trade pact could worsen U.S. trade deficits, while for Africa it would amount to a missed opportunity for badly needed structural economic transformation. It could also force African countries to compete head-to-head with a far stronger U.S. economy, to the disadvantage of their local industries and businesses.

Whatever agreement is reached needs to increase the capacity of African countries to trade with the U.S. While a U.S.–Africa free trade agreement might sound ideal, it would be unlikely to work well for many African countries — those with technological and economic weaknesses could easily be overwhelmed by the powerful U.S. export machine.

Instead of a straightforward free trade agreement, a beneficial pact for Africa should be designed to boost trade and investment between the U.S. and Africa, while gradually increasing the capacity of African countries to compete globally in producing non-traditional, high-value products.

Although the exact details of the Prosper Africa Build Together Campaign are still being worked out, there is cautious optimism it can live up to its promise — unlike AGOA, it has a more holistic, long-term focus. Given the need to counteract the influence of Europe, Russia, and China, the U.S. is likely to be more motivated to engage Africa both economically and geopolitically.

Africa can only secure good trade pacts if it negotiates for them. Countries must therefore invest in capacity building and training for their trade negotiators, as well as hiring, retaining, and empowering the right people for these roles.

The prevailing U.S.–Africa trade framework remains AGOA. It was enacted in 2000 and has been at the core of U.S. economic policy and commercial engagement with Africa ever since. It provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to the U.S. market for over 1,800 products, in addition to more than 5,000 other products already eligible for duty-free access under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program. Currently, 32 countries on the continent are eligible for AGOA benefits.

To some extent, AGOA has helped provide beneficiary countries in sub-Saharan Africa with liberal access to the U.S. market, and it has increased trade and investment ties between the U.S. and the region. It has also supported hundreds of thousands of jobs, especially in the apparel sector.

However, not all sub-Saharan African countries have benefited from AGOA, and many beneficiaries' manufacturing sectors remain weak. Most of Africa's exports under AGOA are still dominated by apparel products. In addition, some AGOA beneficiaries have been foreign companies using Africa as a front to gain access to the U.S. market.

Conclusion

U.S.–Africa economic engagement has evolved from a largely unilateral, aid-oriented framework under AGOA toward a more strategic, investment-driven partnership under Prosper Africa. Whether this newer approach can deliver more equitable, mutually negotiated outcomes than AGOA — while helping African economies diversify beyond apparel and raw commodities — remains to be seen, especially as AGOA's own future stays uncertain and contested in Congress.