The US is in the process of renewing the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) for another three years, but a bill passed on Wednesday makes no mention of South Africa’s future in the trade programme. The Agoa Extension Act was approved by the House ways and means committee in a decisive 37–3 vote, signalling strong bipartisan support for maintaining preferential trade ties with Sub-Saharan Africa. The current draft of the act does not include any specific language relating to South Africa, though the committee is expected to review possible amendments before deciding whether to send the bill to the full House of Representatives for a vote.
In its statement, the committee described Agoa as a“cornerstone of economic relations between the US and sub-Saharan African nations”. According to a statement by the American Chamber of Commerce in South Africa, Agoa “has supported 1.3-million African jobs, generated over half a trillion dollars in duty-free African exports to the US, and sustains nearly half a million American jobs”. The committee said an extended lapse in Agoa “would create a void that malign actors like China and Russia will seek to fill”.
“Africa is home to approximately 30% of the world’s critical mineral resources, and China has invested $8 to $10bn in Africa to try to monopolise these essential supply chains,” the committee’s statement reads. US trade representative Jamieson Greer told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday that South Africa was a “unique problem” for the US. Responding to questions by Republican senator John Kennedy, Greer said the country had both tariff and non-tariff barriers that complicated trade.
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“If they ever want to have a better tariff situation with us, they need to take care of these tariffs and non-tariff barriers,” he said. Kennedy was more direct: “South Africa is clearly not America’s friend.” Greer replied he was “happy to consider” removing the country from Agoa, noting that the US had already imposed reciprocal tariffs on South Africa “much higher than the rest of the continent”.
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