The United States is warning Eritrea and Swaziland that they will lose preferential trade and investment privileges unless they improve human rights and other conditions in their countries before the end of the year, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday.
The official said the two countries would soon be receiving letters from Secretary of State Colin Powell informing them that they will be dropped from eligibility for benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) unless the reforms are implemented.
The official spoke as Washington prepares to send a delegation to Mauritius for the second forum on the act which opens up US markets to certain products from Africa.
Some 300 delegates, including 40 cabinet ministers, from 31 of the 38 African countries with AGOA eligibility — including Eritrea and Swaziland — are due to attend next week’s conference. Swaziland has already received an informal warning to that affect from the US embassy in Mbabane which in December reminded the government that AGOA eligibility is ”is not guaranteed and is subject to constant review.”
That warning came after the mass resignation of all six judges on Swaziland’s Appeals Court and amid allegations, repeated by the senior State Department official that the rule of law was not being respected in the tiny mountain kingdom.
The impoverished, landlocked country of one million people, sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique, ruled by Africa’s last absolute monarch, is facing multiple crises, including criticism for its legal system.
Others include accusations that aides to King Mswati III abducted a teenage girl to become his 10th wife and the monarch’s purchase of a $45-million executive jet criticised by aid agencies as an extravagance when 25% of the population is facing food shortages.
Eritrea is at risk for losing its AGOA privileges due to a massive crackdown on the opposition, the senior official said. The State Department in October described the situation as ”troubling” and said Asmara was undertaking a major offensive against the opposition, the independent media, was restricting religious freedoms and not following through on promises to improve the situation. – Sapa-AFP