Deputy President Paul Mashatile has urged organised US business to support SA’s bid to retain its preferential access to US markets, a desperate move signalling the government’s desire to contain its fallout with Washington over Pretoria’s perceived closeness to Russia.
Mashatile met with businesses represented by the SA American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), which represents more than 600 US businesses in SA, in a closed meeting on Thursday.
Questions on the economy, the emerging markets bloc of Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA) and the Russia-Ukraine conflict were put before the deputy president.
“We are hopeful that since our 10-year cycle is coming to an end in 2025, the US legislators will keep SA as a member of a trade pact and retain our Agoa eligibility, which allows preferential access to some SA products to the US markets,” Mashatile said.
The deputy president’s plea to US business comes amid fears of the country being kicked out of the programme that gives 35 Sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to US markets for certain goods, such as textiles.
This follows the written representation by a bipartisan group of US legislators to the country’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jacob Sullivan and US trade representative Katherine Tai last week asking for the upcoming Agoa Forum to be hosted in another country.
The forum is intended to map the way forward for trade relations between the US and SA.
“Concerning Agoa, we remain adamant that the forum, which is intended to chart the future of US-SA trade relations, will continue to be held in SA,” Mashatile said.
US-SA trade relations came under pressure after Washington accused SA of providing weapons to Russia in its war on Ukraine, a charge Pretoria has denied. President Cyril Ramaphosa has launched an inquiry into the docking of a Russian ship said to be involved.
The plea by the deputy president comes ahead of the 10-year review of SA’s eligibility for the trade pact as well as the Agoa Forum, scheduled to be hosted by SA later this year.
SA “has no plans to sever the long-standing relationship” with the US, Mashatile said during the meeting with AmCham.
Mashatile’s meeting with AmCham comes a day after a high-level delegation of senior cabinet ministers and SA business leaders, led by trade, industry & competition minister Ebrahim Patel, arrived in Washington to meet Tai to discuss SA’s hosting of the forum later this year.
“The discussion focused on the importance of the US-SA trade relationship and ways to increase economic engagement moving forward. The ministers also discussed the African Growth and Opportunity Act [Agoa] programme and African regional integration,” the US trade representative said in a statement after the meeting.
“Following the meeting, ambassador Tai and the SA delegation met with senior business and civil society leaders from SA. The group discussed opportunities to champion workers in both countries, as well as promote inclusive economic growth.”
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