On Oct. 31, the Biden administration restored Mauritania’s trade preferences under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, despite Mauritania not having fully eradicated forced labor and slavery. A closer look at several other aspects of U.S.-Mauritania relations may shed light on the Biden administration’s decision.
Though the recent meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping was short on concrete outcomes, its key accomplishment, according to some observers, was to set a floor on U.S.-China relations. But even if setting a floor was the goal of the meeting, it’s concerning just how low the floor sits.