Uganda dropped from trade pact over Kill the Gays law

In a letter to Congress on Monday, President Joe Biden dropped Uganda and three other African nations from a major trade pact due to “gross violations” of human rights and other eligibility requirements. The decision takes effect in January 2024.

In May, President Yoweri Museveni signed Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, making gay sex a criminal offense in the East African country. All but two of the Christian-majority nation’s 389 members of parliament voted for the bill in March.

Related:

Ex-gay activist faces homosexuality charges under Uganda law he advocated for

A local paper deemed it the first major case since the enactment of the “Kill the Gays” law.

The law makes so-called “aggravated” homosexual sex acts punishable by death. Consensual same-sex relations can earn life in prison.

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In the notification, Biden accused the governments of both Uganda and the Central African Republic of engaging ‘in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights,” in breach of eligibility criteria for the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 2000.

The trade deal offers duty-free access to the U.S. economy for sub-Saharan countries that meet democratic criteria, which are assessed on a yearly basis.

The Gabonese Republic (Gabon) and Niger were also dropped from the pact for failing to establish “or not making continual progress toward establishing, the protection of political pluralism and the rule of law.”

Uganda blasted the decision.

“It seems they have decided Ugandans should be punished” for passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, Odrek Rwabwogo, a senior aide to President Yoweri Museveni, said in a statement.

His government was “disappointed by the unfortunate decision,” Rwabwogo said, but remained open to discussing the issue with the United States.

“While Ugandan trade through AGOA was insubstantial, growth of our exports to the US and other partners was an important pillar of our economic strategy going forward,” Rwabwogo, head of a presidential advisory committee on exports and industrial development, said.

He added: “Ugandan farmers and small business owners will suffer.”  

In August, the World Bank announced it was suspending new loans to Uganda.

Biden called for the immediate repeal of the Kill the Gays legislation after it was passed, and threatened to cut aid and investment in Uganda in retaliation. The State Department issued a starkly-worded travel advisory to U.S. citizens, urging them to “reconsider travel to Uganda due to crime, terrorism, and anti-LGBTQI+ legislation.”

In September, the first major prosecution under the law came before judges, charging an “ex-gay” activist who promoted passage of the law with engaging in consensual gay sex. He faces life in prison if convicted.

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