SA mounts bid to keep Agoa benefits

SA is on a diplomatic drive to retain its status as a beneficiary of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), with Trade, Industry & Competition Minister Parks Tau saying that early and long-term reauthorisation of the US legislation will provide policy certainty for investors and spur industrialisation on the continent. A Business Day report says Tau’s comments echoed US President Joe Biden’s earlier call on the first day of the Agoa Forum yesterday to extend the legislation beyond 2025, when it is due to expire. ‘Reauthorisation of Agoa will also enable the US market to benefit from an expanded basket of goods from Sub-Saharan beneficiaries, a flow for more manufactured goods to be exported under the trade agreement,’ said Tau. ‘In many ways, African countries are demonstrating increased improvement in the levels of value chain integration, but the reality is that value chain integration is happening at a primary level and the opportunity currently provides for us to upgrade the level of integration to manufactured goods.’ He was speaking at a panel yesterday on the sidelines of the Agoa Forum in Washington. SA is on a diplomatic drive to be kept as a beneficiary of the programme – which provides duty-free access to US market for eligible products from Sub-Saharan African countries – amid a deterioration of SA-US relations in recent years. Biden has called for speedy reauthorisation and modernisation of Agoa, calling it ‘the bedrock of America’s economic partnership with African nations’ for two decades.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has assured the establishment of a newer, revamped version of Agoa as the current administration fully supported the re-authorisation of the trade deal to a modern, agile, adaptable model capable of driving trade forward. According to a Cape Times report, Blinken said the US was focused on modernising the Agoa trade arrangement. He noted the arrangement had resulted in hundreds of new private sector deals between African and American businesses, adding that altogether they were worth more than $16bn. He said the newly created Africa Trade Desk, a platform that connected African agricultural producers with more than 20 000 American retailers such as Walmart and Whole Foods, had helped to conclude the $56m deal for the SA grape industry to export to the American market while meeting requirements that promoted good conditions for workers. ‘We will be working alongside the governments across sub-Saharan Africa to invest in our joint strengths and help shape a shared economic future,’ Blinken said.