US scraps Ethiopia from trade pact despite late push

Ethiopia is set on January 1 to lose key trading privileges in the United States over rights concerns, despite a last-minute push backed by diaspora members who warn that Washington could lose an ally.

President Joe Biden on November 2 announced the New Year's removal of Ethiopia, a longtime US partner and the continent's second most populous country, from the African Growth and Opportunity Act as he pointed to "gross violations" in the year-old war with Tigrayan rebels.

The Ethiopian government has lobbied hard against the move and estimates that one million jobs have been supported directly or indirectly by the 2000 law, which grants duty-free access for most goods.

The chairs of the Senate and House subcommittees on Africa both urged Biden in a letter to reconsider the "abrupt" move, saying that a recent rebel retreat provided an opening for diplomacy.

"We are concerned that suspension of AGOA benefits will be counterproductive and disproportionately harm the most vulnerable Ethiopians without contributing to the cessation of hostilities," wrote Senator Chris Van Hollen and Representative Karen Bass, both members of Biden's Democratic Party.

"Furthermore, this decision invites China to strengthen its economic foothold in the Horn of Africa."

Van Hollen and Bass both represent constituencies with hubs of Ethiopian-Americans, a community estimated at anywhere from 250,000 to one million strong that has increasingly flexed political muscle over the war.

Mesfin Tegenu, chairman of the American-Ethiopian Public Affairs Committee, acknowledged Biden was unlikely to reverse the decision before January 1 but said the president could readmit Ethiopia "with a stroke of

a pen."

He described Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government as "the most pro-Western the country has ever had" and said ending trade privileges was only inviting China -- which has been expanding influence in Africa and has made a point of criticizing Biden's

decision.

"This is going to be a catastrophic mistake for our country to really be replaced willingly by a competitive power," Mesfin said.