Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) Minister, Parks Tau has concluded a successful visit to the United States of America (USA).
The Minister was accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising the Deputy Minister of dtic, Andrew Whitfield, government officials, the private sector and organised labour. The delegation was participating in the 21st Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum that ran from 22-26 July 2024.
This followed the successful hosting of the 20th AGOA Forum in November 2023, in Johannesburg.
READ | Patel supports call for reauthorisation of AGOA
The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act is a unilateral trade preference scheme that provides qualifying sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free, quota-free access into the United States market. AGOA remains the cornerstone of the USA’s commercial relations with sub-Saharan Africa.
With AGOA expiring in 14 months, the African Ministers of Trade urged the Biden Administration and the Members of US Congress, for expeditious renewal of AGOA with non-controversial enhancements and amendments for a minimum of 16 years to provide the required predictability and certainty to buyers, exporters and investors.
The Ministers called for the renewal of AGOA to be concluded by the end of 2024. There was an agreement to promote stronger and closer investment relations to complement AGOA and change the structure of Africa’s trade towards value-added exports.
“We welcome the support expressed by both the Biden Administration and Members of Congress for the renewal of AGOA,” said Tau.
The forum also highlighted the critical role that South Africa plays in the development of regional value chains on the African continent in a number of sectors, including the auto sector.
The delegation held extensive engagements with members of the US Congress and House of Representative, US Administration, US private sector and think tanks. The engagements focused on sharing information on the political developments in South Africa in particular the establishment of the Government of National Unity (GNU).
“We welcome the warm reception, as well as productive and constructive discussions we had with Members of Congress across the aisle and with the US Administration. There was a lot of interest in the GNU and its priorities, including efforts to deepen and enhance bilateral relations with the US,” Tau said.
The delegation also used the engagements to advocate for the early reauthorisation of AGOA including exploring enhancements that facilitate greater utilisation and create the necessary policy stability to promote private sector investment and African exports into the US.
There was broad support for strengthening bilateral trade and investment relations between South Africa and the United States.
TIFA
“We welcome the positive discussions with the US Trade Representative, Ambassador [Catherine] Tai and the agreement by both sides to resuscitate the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) at a Ministerial level, that last met in 2014.
“We instructed our officials to prepare for our first meeting which will provide a good platform for constructive discussions and effective resolution of trade related matters from both sides. The resuscitation of the TIFA provides new impetus to our strategic partnership,” Tau said.
The US remains South Africa’s strategic trading partner and South Africa is the largest non-oil Sub-Saharan Africa exporting partner to the US and through AGOA has been able to boost both agriculture and value-added exports, thus creating much-needed jobs for South Africans.
The AGOA Forum is held on an alternate basis between Africa and the US. The 2025 AGOA Forum will thus be held in the Democratic Republic of Congo. – SAnews.gov.za
