Department to defend Agoa ties in court matter

Setting aside the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) will have dire consequences, MPs in South Africa were told on Thursday. Department of Trade and Industry Director-General Lionel October was sharing developments on trade relations between SA and the US with the National Assembly’s Trade and Industry Committee, according to a Fin24 report. The SA Poultry Association has launched a court application to have the entire Agoa agreement set aside, arguing that the US had reneged on the agreement. This is in context of meetings between the department and the US on diminishing benefits for SA since the US imposed a 25% tariff on steel imports and a 10% tariff on aluminium imports. This was despite SA making compromises allowing more than 60 000 tonnes of poultry imports from the US, said October. But, he said, the policy had always been to extend the Agoa agreement. ‘We had to make compromises, as you have to when dealing with trade relationships. You need to compromise and compromise.’ October said the department had argued that its steel exports were no threat to the US economy as they made up less than 5%. ‘We can’t understand why they would punish us while allowing Argentina and Brazil to export (to them).’ He said SA would make its case, but that confrontation would be avoided, as the benefits of Agoa outweighed the drawbacks. ‘We will all be losers if we lose Agoa,’ he is quoted as saying. He added the department would explain the importance of Agoa to the court hearing the poultry association matter.