NAIROBI, Sept 17 (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 Target ( TGT ) and

Walmart ( WMT ).

The act is designed to support economic development of

African nations and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs in

the textiles, automotive and mining sectors while U.S. lawmakers

have viewed it as a tool to counter Chinese influence on the

continent.

Despite bipartisan support, an attempt last year to renew

AGOA for 16 years did not make it to a vote in Congress. Since

then, President Trump's trade policies have suggested there may

not be the political will in Washington to push through an

extension.

Bedi, who is also a Kenya Association of Manufacturers board

member, said the delegation of private investors and government

officials had more than 30 engagements last week, including with

members of Congress and their aides.

He said there was universal support from the Congressional

Republicans and Democrats they met, including staffers for House

Speaker Mike Johnson, to renew AGOA.

But he said it remained unclear whether Congress could find

a piece of legislation in the next two weeks to which a renewal

could be attached.

Without an extension, manufacturers would face steep rises

in tariffs on their products, including a jump from 10% to 43%

for synthetic textiles.

"It's like a house of cards that will collapse," Bedi said,

predicting mass layoffs across the textiles sector if AGOA is

not renewed.

The White House and the offices of the United States Trade

Representative and Speaker Johnson did not respond immediately

to requests for comment. The White House has not said publicly

whether it supports an extension.

Bedi said that if AGOA ends, the U.S. would become even more

heavily dependent on Asian manufacturers.

"If this is taken away, by default, the business is going to

go back to China," he said.