AGOA Extended to 2028: What It Means for Exporters
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On 8 August 2026, the US Senate voted to extend the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to 31 December 2028. The US House of Representatives had already approved a three-year extension in January 2026. However, the extension is not yet law. Because the Senate amended the House bill, it must now return to the House for a concurrence vote. If the House agrees, the bill will then go to the President for signature.
For now, the legislation extends AGOA only until 31 December 2026. The proposed three-year extension has strong bipartisan support, but it only become law once the House approves the amended bill and the President signs it.
The good news
Three things in the bill are worth telling clients about.
It is a clean date change. The extension moves the expiry from 2026 to 2028 and makes no other amendments to the Act. That means all 32 currently participating countries, including South Africa, keep their existing status under the programme. Nobody is being written out by this bill.
There are duty refunds. The bill provides for refunds of duties paid on eligible goods entered after 30 September 2025 and before enactment. That covers the window when AGOA had lapsed and importers were paying duties they would not have paid under the programme. If your client's US buyer or customs broker paid duty in that period, there is money to be recovered. Someone has to identify those entries, and it will not happen automatically.
Apparel preferences survive. The extension preserves the third-country fabric provision, which allows some apparel made in beneficiary countries using non-AGOA yarns and fabrics to still qualify for duty-free access. For clients in textiles and clothing, this is the provision that makes the programme commercially useful.
The part still missing
South Africa's participation in AGOA is not decided by this bill.
Whether the programme exists is a decision for the US Congress. Whether South Africa is an eligible beneficiary of it is a separate decision, made annually by the US President. The criteria cover trade and investment policy, governance, worker rights, human rights, and US foreign policy interests. The US President reviews each country every year and determines eligibility for the following calendar year.
The 2027 decision has not been made. The US Trade Representative opened its 26th annual eligibility review on 30 June 2026 for calendar year 2027, and the notice is framed as applying to the current AGOA "if reauthorized". The outcome has not been announced, which is not unusual. The results of the previous review, covering 2026 eligibility, had still not been announced by February 2026.
There is also targeted political risk. Two bills are live in the US Congress seeking to remove South Africa from AGOA over its foreign relations and to sanction officials, though neither has gained significant legislative traction. A Senate version of the extension also proposed a specific review of South Africa's eligibility.
And the tariff that overrides all of it
Even if both decisions go South Africa's way, exporters in the hardest-hit sector are not made whole.
AGOA duty-free access does not override a Section 232 duty. The 25% tariff on imported vehicles and automotive components stands regardless of what Congress does with the extension. That single measure has cancelled out the preference for the industry that was AGOA's largest South African beneficiary for a quarter of a century. South African vehicle exports to the United States fell 83.2% in a year. This is why naamsa described the extension as strategic breathing room rather than a win. It is policy continuity, not restored competitiveness.
As we reported in our article US Raises Tariffs on Some South African Exports, exporters were already absorbing a separate increase from 10% to 12.5% on many South African goods, so the tariff picture was tightening before this vote.
Here is the rewrite. The main changes: every piece of jargon now gets explained in the sentence where it appears, sentences are shorter, and each point says what you actually do rather than what you should consider.
What to do for your clients this week
Look for duty your client can get back.
When AGOA lapsed, goods that would have entered the US duty-free were charged duty instead. The new bill allows that money to be refunded. It covers goods that entered the US from 30 September 2025 up to the date the bill becomes law.
So ask your client for a list of every shipment to the US since 30 September 2025. Get the customs entry documents and proof of what duty was paid. Once the bill is signed, there is a refund to claim. Get the paperwork ready now. Refund windows usually come with short deadlines.
Check the tariff code on every product.
Every product exported to the US has a tariff code, called an HTS code. That code decides three things: whether the product qualifies for AGOA, whether a refund is due, and whether a separate US tariff applies instead.
That last point matters most as some products, including vehicles and vehicle parts, fall under a US measure called Section 232. AGOA gives no relief on those. The 25% duty applies anyway. So check the code first. If your client's product sits under Section 232, none of the AGOA news helps them, and they need to hear that clearly.
Fix the assumption in the client's numbers.
Some clients will have built duty-free US access through 2028 into a budget, a bank application or a plan to buy new equipment.
That assumption is not safe yet. The extension is still a bill, not a law. South Africa's eligibility for 2027 has not been confirmed. Write this into the assumptions note so it is on record. Where a client earns a large share of its income from US sales, raise it in the going concern discussion too. If US access falls away, some of these businesses do not survive it.
Establish who pays if the duty goes up.
A tariff increase lands on either the seller or the buyer. Which one depends on the sales agreement and the delivery terms, known as Incoterms.
Read the contract and find out. If the terms say your client carries the cost, a duty increase comes straight off their margin. Most small business contracts were written long before anyone expected a 25% tariff, so this is worth checking now rather than after an invoice is disputed.
Four conversations. One news event.
Your client is not having any of these conversations on their own. That is the work, and it is work you can charge for.
