South Africa (SA) will be able to navigate the economic fallout from its exclusion from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau has assured.
The statement follows an official notification sent by United States (US) President Donald Trump to the US Congress on Monday, confirming that SA and Rwanda will be removed from the duty-free trade preference programme starting next year.
Speaking to SABC News, Tau revealed that the SA government had proactively drawn up contingency plans to cushion domestic industries against the loss of preferential trade access to the American market.
“We have been preparing for the possibility of losing AGOA benefits,” Tau stated. “Notwithstanding the fact that both the Senate and Congress had passed AGOA and SA’s continued participation, we thought it’s important that we do prepare. And that preparation includes the work that we’re doing with individual companies. Our teams are visiting and meeting the individual companies.”
Tau emphasised that SA will maintain diplomatic and commercial engagements with Washington to strengthen bilateral trade ties outside the AGOA framework, while continuing direct support to affected local manufacturing and export firms.
–ChannelAfrica–
