Commercial Diplomacy and Deals ‘Core Focus’ of U.S-Africa Policy

The Trump administration is adopting a new commercial diplomacy strategy for sub-Saharan Africa ”based on what we’ve seen that actually works,” the acting head of the Africa Bureau at the U.S. State Department, Ambassador Troy Fitrell, said in a briefing for reporters. Fitrell also confirmed plans to host another U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit later this year.

Speaking last week in Abidjan, Fitell said the administration is committed “to increase U.S. exports and investment in Africa, eliminate our trade deficits and drive mutual prosperity,” Fitrell told a gathering of American Chambers of Commerce meeting in Abidjan, where he outlined a new Commercial Diplomacy Strategy,

“Africa should be among our largest trading partners and yet, it isn’t. U.S. exports to Sub-Saharan Africa represent less than one percent of our total trade in goods – a figure that has remained virtually unchanged for more than two decades,” he told participants in the 2025 AmCham Business Summit, hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Abidjan and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s U.S.-Africa Business Center and its affiliate AmCham network in west Africa.

The AmCham meeting took place immediately following the 2025 Africa CEO Forum, co-organized by Jeune Afrique Media Group and the International Finance Corproation and attended by 2,800 economic and political leaders from 90 countries. Among the speakers were five African presidents – Alassane Ouattara (Côte d’Ivoire), Bassirou Diomaye Faye (Senegal), Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), Mohamed Ould Ghazouani (Mauritania), and Paul Kagame (Rwanda).