The deal was supposed to help African economies develop through preferential access to US markets, trade experts said on Thursday.

Several African countries were hit by some of the highest tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, including levies of 50% on goods from Lesotho, 47% for Madagascar, 40% for Mauritius, 37% for Botswana and 30% for South Africa (SA), the continent's biggest exporter to the US.

Many of the hardest-hit countries are already struggling with very high levels of poverty and debt as well as, in some cases, other severe challenges such as food shortages or cyclones in Madagascar, and one of the world's highest rates of HIV/AIDS infections in Lesotho.

The tariffs also compound the pain for Africa after Trump's administration dismantled USAID, the government agency that was a major supplier of aid to the continent, and specifically cut bilateral aid to SA.

The AGOA trade accord is due to expire in September, and the raft of tariffs suggests that a renewal of the deal, a major part of US policy towards the continent since the 1990s era of President Bill Clinton, is extremely unlikely.

"The reciprocal trade announcement policy will pull the AGOA rug from under our feet. That will be gone. It will replace AGOA, you don't have to wait for September. It'll be gone before then," said Economist Adrian Saville, a Professor at SA's Gordon Institute of Business Science.

It was unclear whether AGOA tariff exemptions on certain goods would continue to be applied between now and September in the wake of Trump's tariff barrage.

"There is no indication that imports under AGOA are exempt from the 10% tariffs, so it appears that effectively immediately AGOA imports that previously were duty-free are now subject to a 10% duty," the Washington-based African Coalition for Trade said in a memo to members on Thursday.

--Reuters--