The future of the African Growth & Opportunity Act (Agoa) is up in the air but South Africa is now pursuing bilateral trade deals with the US, agriculture minister John Steenhuisen says.
Steenhuisen, a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s delegation to Washington this week, told the Sunday Times on his return that much had been achieved on the trade front, despite the cloud hanging over Agoa.
If the act was extended, its duty-free benefits were likely to be watered down, he said.
Introduced in 2000, the concessionary trade deal for sub-Saharan Africa is set to expire in September unless the US Congress votes to extend it.
“I think that Agoa is going to change, and I don’t think it’s going to be the Agoa that we had expected,” the DA leader said.
“But certainly, when the US trade representative [Jamieson Greer] said, ‘Well, you know, you guys have got to speak to Congress about that,’ it shows that there’s clearly still a discussion going on in Congress,” said Steenhuisen.
But he added that the fact that South Africa and the US were now negotiating on tariffs was a strong indication that Agoa would change radically.
“If we’re talking about tariffs ... that shows Agoa is definitely going to be restructured, because you can’t be negotiating tariffs, et cetera, when, you know, at the same time negotiating a tariff-free agreement.”
Steenhuisen has previously said farmers should prepare for life without Agoa as the congressional discussions could go either way.
“But we must treat anything from Agoa as a bonus. I always say, you plan for the worst and hope for the best. The hoping for the best is that Agoa will remain in place. Planning for the worst has to be that we plan for a restructuring or a carve-out.”
Now that the White House has opened the door, I think that there’s going to be a little bit more leeway for bilateral meetings to take place
— John Steenhuisen
Steenhuisen said the meeting at the White House had gone a long way in restoring the relationship with the US on trade.
“And obviously I’m going to seek bilateral meetings with my agri counterpart, secretary [Brooke] Rollins ... to start to just have a discussion.
“Now that the White House has opened the door, I think that there’s going to be a little bit more leeway for bilateral meetings to take place,” he said.
He planned to contact Rollins “within a week” to discuss “the agriculture space in the US and South Africa, and what we can be doing to co-operate”.
Steenhuisen said the delegation came out of the meeting with Trump confident that his acrimony towards South Africa was a thing of the past.
“So, all in all, I think the meeting went incredibly well, and I really enjoyed meeting Greer, and I think they also understand that South Africa is a strategic partner for them, given our access to strategic minerals, which they need to fuel their economy,” said Steenhuisen.
“It was a serious discussion, and it was a very frank and open discussion, but it wasn’t hostile. And I think there’s a real, genuine effort that both sides see that we’re serious about actually keeping our trading relationship going.”
The trip, he said, was never going to be an “easy” one given the diplomatic tensions over the false claims of genocide in South Africa, but “I certainly think we left Washington in better shape than we were in when we came in”.
“And I think that was referenced by Trump now being a little less certain about the so-called genocide, and, a little bit more assured that rural safety is something that we take quite seriously.”
In the Oval Office meeting, broadcast live, Steenhuisen dismissed the genocide accusations and called EFF leader Julius Malema and MK Party leader Jacob Zuma a “rabble” that needed to be kept far from the levers of power.
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