SA secures Agoa benefits for another year

SA has secured its African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) benefits for another year, allowing duty-free access to US markets in 2025, says a Business Day report. Agoa requires US legislators to conduct annual eligibility reviews of beneficiaries. For SA, retaining its status as a beneficiary is crucial as Agoa provides preferential access for about 20% of the country’s exports to the US, or 2% of its shipments globally. In May, the US House of Representatives passed the US-SA Bilateral Review Act, requiring the Biden administration to undertake a full review of SA relations with the US. It first needs to pass in the Senate before it can be signed into law by the US President. The Bill was hugely critical of SA’s foreign policy stance of non-alignment and cited its ‘siding with malign actors, including Hamas, a US-designated foreign terrorist organisation and a proxy of the Iranian regime while continuing to pursue closer ties with the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation’. However, SA has weathered the storm. ‘Based on the results of the annual African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) eligibility review, which included a public hearing in July that was chaired by the Office of the US Trade Representative, President Biden has determined to maintain Agoa benefits for each country now eligible under the programme,’ US Trade representative Sam Michel said in a statement. About 32 sub-Saharan countries are beneficiaries of the Act. ‘The list of eligible and ineligible countries will remain unchanged for 2025,’ Michel said. The next hurdle for SA and other African beneficiaries of Agoa who had been lobbying for a renewal of the trade agreement, is to ensure that it is renewed for at least another 10 years before its expiry in September 2025.

Full Business Day report