President Yoweri Museveni declared over the weekend that Uganda does not want special tariff breaks from the US, although he is pleased that the US will continue to support HIV treatment.
However, he added, Uganda may also rely solely on those medications if necessary.
Last week, Uganda was taken out of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
“Foreign actors erroneously think that African countries cannot move forward without their support,” said Museveni in a State of the Nation Address.
“Some of these actors in the Western world overestimate themselves and underestimate the freedom fighters of Africa.”
Together with Niger, Gabon, and the Central African Republic (CAR), Uganda was kicked out of AGOA.
Uganda “engaged in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights,” according to US President Joe Biden.
This year, Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) into law. The law is thought to be one of the most anti-LGBTQI laws and stipulates that specific same-sex actions are punishable by death.
Museveni claimed that since such laws were already in place in the Arab world, it was unfair to blame Ugandans for passing anti-LGBTQI legislation.
He said:
I am told that some of the Arab countries have similar laws. Why don’t these actors put similar pressure on them?
Uganda exported coffee, crafts, dried fruits, chocolate, tea, vanilla, and textiles to the United States through AGOA.
The US State Department reports that during 2018 and 2019, the year before to the Covid-19 outbreak, Uganda’s exports to the US under the project were valued at R19 million (almost Shs4 billion). Exports rose from R64 million (almost Shs13 billion) to R96 million (about Shs20 billion) by the end of 2021.
Even though Uganda’s commerce under AGOA with the US was less than that of the EU (which was R15 billion last year) and the UK (which was R8 billion), there was still opportunity for expansion.
But Museveni believes Uganda can do without AGOA.
“Certainly, as far as Uganda is concerned, we have the capacity to achieve our growth and transformation targets, even if some of the actors do not support us,” he said.
The world’s greatest donor to worldwide HIV/AIDS initiatives is the United States government, through the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR).
In Uganda, there were 1.4 million HIV-positive individuals in 2021. 5.2% of adults were receiving antiretroviral therapy, and 1.2 million of them were adults.
54 000 new infections and 17,000 deaths from Aids were reported.
The US and its allies threatened to stop supporting Uganda in its fight against HIV, as one of the threats issued to the country on its anti-LGBTQI bill.
Museveni said he was happy that the US had not cut its support for the fight against HIV.
But in the event that the US did do this, there was a contingency plan in place.
“It is good that the American government avoided the mistake of de-funding the procurement of HIV drugs for our 1.4 million people on those drugs. However, all our people on the ARVs and all the Ugandans need to know that we had a contingency plan to fully fund the procurement of those drugs if ever the external funders were unable to fund them,” he said.
