By Aaron Ross

NAIROBI (Reuters) – African manufacturers are lobbying U.S. Congress to grant a last-ditch extension of one or two years to a duty-free trade programme due to expire at the end of September, a Kenyan factory owner involved in the campaign told Reuters.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff policies have cast doubt on the prospects for renewal of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) trade initiative, which was passed in 2000 under former President Bill Clinton to provide duty-free access to the U.S. market for thousands of products.

Delegations from Kenya and four other AGOA beneficiaries visited Washington last week to push for the temporary extension, said Pankaj Bedi, chairman of apparel company United Aryan, which supplies U.S. retailers such as Tar

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