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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The US is to remove preferential trading access under the African Growth and Opportunity Act from Uganda, the Central African Republic, Gabon and Niger for human rights violations and for failure to make democratic progress.
President Joe Biden Biden said Uganda, which this year passed punitive anti-gay laws including the death penalty for people engaging in certain same-sex acts, had committed “gross violations of internationally recognised human rights”.
Niger and Gabon, whose governments were overthrown in coups this year, fell foul of Agoa stipulations that they should be “making continual progress towards establishing the protection of political pluralism and the rule of law”, he said.
The loss of Agoa status takes effect for all four countries in January.
The US this year suspended foreign aid for both Gabon and Niger. Niger’s ousted president,…