Trade or trouble: Ramaphosa’s last-ditch bid to save Agoa deal

Ramaphosa

Johannesburg – Securing South Africa’s trade ties with the United States will be a key aim of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to Washington this week to meet Donald Trump, a minister in the delegation said on Monday.

Ramaphosa was to be accompanied by four cabinet ministers on the high stakes visit and was expected to meet Trump at the White House on Wednesday.Ties between Pretoria and Washington have plummeted since Trump took office in January and Ramaphosa’s visit is seen as an attempt to reset the relationship.

A priority is securing trade relations in order to “protect jobs, grow the economy and expand employment opportunities”, Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen said.

The United States is South Africa’s second-largest trading partner behind China.

Trump’s sweeping trade tariffs announced in April, and then paused for 90 days, included a levy of 31 percent on South African imports which some industries say could result in massive lay offs.

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Steenhuisen said a particular concern was the future of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which provides duty-free access to the US market for some African products.

There are fears that the Trump administration will end the agreement, which is up for renewal in September.

“Preferential trade agreements such as AGOA contribute significantly to our economy,” Steenhuisen said in a statement.

“Losing these benefits would be disastrous for farmers, farm workers and the economy at large,” he said.

With unemployment at around 32 percent, economic growth and job creation is a priority for Ramaphosa’s government.

The president will also attempt to affirm that conspiracies of a “white genocide” are “patently false”, his spokesman Vincent Magwenya said.

Trump’s administration welcomed around 50 people from the Afrikaner community last week after claiming the white minority was under threat in the black-majority country.

Steenhuisen is a leader of the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) party that joined Ramaphosa’s government of national unity, formed after last year’s elections.

Ramaphosa is also expected to encourage Trump to attend the G20 summit of leading economies that South Africa hosts in Johannesburg in November and which the US president has threatened to skip.

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