The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced Monday that President Donald Trump will remove South Africa and Rwanda from the African Growth and Opportunity Act, with the suspensions taking effect Jan. 1, 2027, according to the Ottumwa Courier's AP report.

AGOA, introduced by President Bill Clinton in 2000, gives more than 30 African nations duty-free access to the U.S. market for some goods, and memberships are reviewed each year.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the two countries were removed over policies that include barriers undermining American trade and investment, and practices posing a threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests in the region, though no specific examples were given.

The move is another sanction against Africa's biggest economy by an administration already at odds with Pretoria, the Ottumwa Courier reports.

Just last week the U.S. excluded South Africa from a G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta, and it sanctioned Rwanda's defense ministry over its support of the M23 rebel group fighting government forces in mineral-rich eastern Congo.

U.S.-South Africa relations have plummeted during Trump's second term, with the administration accusing the Black-led government of being anti-white over affirmative action policies and anti-American over its criticism of Israel and diplomatic ties with Iran.

South Africa denies the charges, calling the criticism the product of misinformation.

Greer said Trump informed Congress and both governments, and that removal followed barriers to American trade and investment plus practices that threaten U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, per the AP report carried by the Ottumwa Courier.

U.S. Ambassador to South Africa L. Brent Bozell III wrote on X that the suspension was a predictable outcome of Pretoria's rejection of U.S. concerns, including demands to make crime against farmers a priority crime, drop affirmative action requirements for U.S. businesses, and repeal a land law allowing expropriation without compensation in some cases.

Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said last month the country was preparing for the worst-case scenario on AGOA but would not surrender its sovereignty. Rep.

Richard Neal warned the cut could cause chaos for the U.S. economy, since South Africa is the program's top exporter to the U.S.

South African officials said last week they expected removal from the program, whose duty-free access members view as a crucial economic boost, and Greer said the administration is working to ensure African partners take steps to meet eligibility criteria, meaning reinstatement remains possible.

The U.S. previously cut nations including Burkina Faso, Gabon, Niger and Uganda under President Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, other powers continue courting African capitals: Business Insider Africa reports that Slovenia's first female president, Nataša Pirc Musar, Melania Trump's former lawyer, arrived in Cairo on Nov.

3 for her first official state visit to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, an outspoken Palestinian rights advocate who raised the Palestinian flag outside her presidential palace.