Kenya, Ghana, and Ethiopia are among the many African economies that face the bottom tariffs below President Donald Trump’s new commerce coverage. Items from the three international locations might be topic to a ten% levy, considerably decrease than charges imposed on Lesotho (50%), Madagascar (47%), Botswana (37%), Angola (32%), and South Africa (30%). 

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump introduced tailor-made tariffs for international locations globally in a transfer he stated would deliver manufacturing again to the US, improve tax revenues, and reply to unfair commerce insurance policies. The plan, which set a baseline tariff of 10%, may upset world commerce and sluggish progress in creating international locations like Kenya. 

The ten% common tariff will take impact on April 5, whereas reciprocal tariffs, resembling these imposed on imports from Nigeria, will start on April 9. Nigeria’s items to the US will face a 14% levy, practically half of the duties the West African nation imposes on imports from the US. 

“April 2, 2025, will perpetually be remembered because the day American trade was reborn, the day America’s future was reclaimed, and the day that we started to make America rich once more,” Trump stated in an tackle on Wednesday.

Trump’s tariff announcement presents a major political and financial threat for African international locations like Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, which already grapple with financial downturns. 

Items from round 30 African international locations–most of which impose 10% tariffs–will face the bottom charges globally. Trump’s new commerce coverage additional heightens uncertainty over the renewal of the African Development Alternative Act (AGOA), which is about to run out in September 2025. 

South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya are the largest beneficiaries of AGOA, which grants duty-free entry to the US marketplace for 32 sub-Saharan African international locations. In 2024, AGOA-covered imports averaged $11.6 billion.

South Africa exports car elements below AGOA, whereas Nigeria, Ghana, and Angola primarily export petroleum merchandise. In the meantime, Kenya, Lesotho, and Tanzania, concentrate on textile and attire exports.