Whitehouse, Doggett Propose New Environmental Accountability Measure Related to U.S.-Africa Trade Law

Bill would incentivize better environmental stewardship while protecting American manufacturers from unfair competition with polluters

Countries would be held accountable to their existing environmental commitments

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) this week introduced the Environmental Commitment Objectives for African Growth and Opportunity Act (ECO AGOA). The legislation would add enforcement of a nation's own environmental commitments as criteria for countries in sub-Saharan Africa to qualify for duty-free access to the U.S. market under AGOA. Since its enactment in 2000, AGOA has been a key pillar of U.S. economic policy and trade relations with sub-Saharan Africa.

"Without environmental accountability criteria, the fossil fuel industry and other big polluters rake in more profits while harming the health of local communities and putting U.S. manufacturers that use clean production methods at a disadvantage," said Whitehouse. "Our bill would promote AGOA's development goals and strip big polluters of the economic reward and competitive advantage they get from polluting."

"The race for Africa's critical minerals appears to have become a race to the bottom. The Trump regime's critical minerals deals ignore the poisoning of water, soil, and lungs when environmental laws go unenforced," said Doggett. "ECO AGOA sets a simple standard: if you want America's trade preferences, enforce your own environmental laws. It is a modest step that helps our partners protect their own people and resources."

AGOA currently provides 32 sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to the U.S. market for over 1,800 products. To qualify for AGOA, countries must meet criteria on market-based reforms, political pluralism, worker and human rights, rule of law, poverty reduction, and anti-corruption efforts.

AGOA's lack of environmental accountability criterion undermines global climate commitments, jeopardizes public health, and gives foreign polluters a competitive advantage over cleaner domestic manufacturers. For example, lead imported from unregulated recycling sites that are poisoning communities is currently duty-free under AGOA. A New York Times investigation found that seven in ten people in one Nigerian town had harmful levels of lead in their blood, including every worker at a lead recycling factory. Imported lead competes with battery recycling factories in the U.S. that are subject to strict environmental standards. Oil and gas products have also benefited from duty-free treatment under AGOA more than any other category of goods, harming the climate while doing little to benefit the communities AGOA was designed to help.

ECO AGOA would add a criterion to AGOA that requires countries to effectively enforce their domestic environmental laws and fulfill their international environmental obligations. Rather than impose new standards, ECO AGOA holds countries accountable to the environmental commitments they've already made domestically and abroad, offering a practical benchmark for eligibility.

Full text of the bill is available here.