29 July 2014
South Africa will push for the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) to be extended for a 15-year period when its current period expires next year, and for its own inclusion in the programme’s rollover, says Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies.
Briefing reporters in Pretoria on Monday ahead of the United States-Africa Leaders’ Summit that takes place in Washington next week, Davies said South Africa believed that Agoa “has been a useful platform for cooperation between Africa and the US, and we are calling for an extension for 15 years”.
African trade ministers will meet with US Trade Representative Michael Froman ahead of next week’s summit to discuss Agoa, which enables 39 eligible sub-Saharan African countries to export most products duty-free to the United States.
The programme has seen total African exports to the US more than quadruple, and US exports to sub-Saharan Africa more than triple, since its inception in 2000.
Davies said that a 15-year extension would “allow certainty for investments that are going to be made in African countries to take advantage of the Agoa opportunities. We believe that a rollover for that period of time on more or less the existing architecture would be a mutually beneficial and developmental decision that could be taken by the US.”
On the question of South Africa’s possible exclusion from Agoa because of its perceived middle-income status, Davies said the government was arguing for South Africa’s continued inclusion.
“The existing trading relationship with the US, including Agoa, has supported a growing, diversified and relatively balanced trading relationship,” Davies said, adding that South Africa’s economy was still characterised by high levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality.
According to the Department of Trade and Industry, combined trade between South Africa and the US has shown consistent growth, increasing from R88-billion in 2009 to R130-billion in 2013.
“It’s reasonably balanced,” Davies said. “Our view is that this relationship has been underpinned by Agoa, and therefore this is an arrangement that isn’t broken and doesn’t need fixing. It needs to be continued.”
In addition, Davies argued, when the US Congress meets to decide on Agoa’s future, it should look at the issue of South Africa not “line by line” but holistically, taking into account that, when negotiating any kind of trade agreement, South Africa does so as part of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), which includes Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.
To exclude South Africa while including the other members would undermine the coherence of the SACU, Davies said.
President Jacob Zuma will lead the South African delegation to the summit, which will be preceded by a meeting of US and African business executives, as well as the Agoa ministerial meeting.
Davies said one aspect of the summit would focus on trade and investment, while the other focused on security and human development.
Source: SAnews.gov.za
