In six months’ time the world’s gaze will be trained on what is gearing up to be a contentious and hotly contested presidential election in the US.

South Africa’s citrus sector in the western parts of the country has always retained a keen interest in US political views over promoting African trade to the US

Geopolitical risks are back on the SA agricultural agenda.

South Africa stands to lose up to R60-billion a year in exports to the US if it forfeits its privileged access to the US market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) because of its ever-closer ties with Russia.

South Africa’s relationship with America is important and active work is being done to protect South Africa’s place within the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) agreement.

Trade relations between the US and Africa have centred on Congress’s ‘Africa Growth and Opportunities Act’ (AGOA) since 2000, designed to foster the continent’s economic development and prosperity via preferential access to American markets.

Food importer Hume International logistics and operations director Roy Thomas stresses that the looming threat of South Africa’s expulsion from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) trade agreement with the US threatens to push the industry over the edge, risking meteoric rises in local chicken prices.

The document about South Africa’s Agoa status informed deliberations by high-level envoys sent to the US by President Cyril Ramaphosa to explain South Africa’s stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to lobby to retain South Africa as part of Agoa.

While South Africa pleads its case to retain preferential access to US markets, an intellectual property expert has raised concerns in the US Congress about two contentious South African bills that, if passed by parliament, could see copyright protections substantially lowered. 

Trevor Manuel! Our then Minister of Finance, so much beloved by the IMF, World Bank and the rich that his resignation in 2008 in solidarity with the enforced resignation of President Thabo Mbeki caused the rand to plummet until his quick rescinding of his resignation.

Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel says the US Congress has not yet set a date on the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), but they are lobbying both the Republicans and Democrats for the extension of Agoa.

Rarely does foreign policy feature in South Africans’ public debate, and when it does – invariably in response to some exceptional global event – it tends to manifest itself in bursts of intense argument among small groups of thought leaders, with wider circles in society taking up positions around them.

After considerable diplomatic drama and one postponement, the annual forum of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) will be held from 2 to 4 November in Johannesburg, when South Africa will seek to maximise its exploitation of the measure to gain greater access to the lucrative US market.

The formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) has secured South Africa a “honeymoon period” for retaining its privileged access to US markets under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). This is the view of US politicians and South African trade analysts on the eve of the annual Agoa Forum which runs from Wednesday, 24 July to Friday, 26 July in Washington. 

Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau is confident that the US will allow South Africa to continue participating in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) and that the US will reauthorise this preferential trade measure as a whole before it expires next year.

The future of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) is increasingly uncertain as US industrial policy becomes more nationalistic and securitised, particularly in response to shifting geopolitical, trade and domestic priorities. 

ill another Donald Trump presidency be good or bad for South Africa? No one seems sure, not even the South African government.

For a US president who is publicly threatening to take Greenland and Panama by military force – and also to annex Canada through crippling economic pressure – kicking South Africa out of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), or even trashing the whole programme, would clearly be small change. 

The narrative that South Africa is dependent on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for economic prosperity is deeply flawed.

With the possibility of losing Agoa (African Growth and Opportunity Act) benefits looming large, the competitive position of South African citrus in the US market is under close scrutiny.