(3 Minutes Read)
Importantly, the US is deciding whether to extend the country’s participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade deal, ahead of South Africa’s hosting of the G20 summit next year. AGOA provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries (including SA currently) with duty-free access to the US market for over 1,800 products.
President Cyril Ramaphosa met with South African-born US billionaire Elon Musk – the co-founder of Tesla Motors, founder of SpaceX, and owner of X (formerly Twitter) – in New York recently, trying to woo Musk and United States (US) businesses into investing in the ‘GNU’ South Africa.
Ramaphosa is leading a delegation in the US this week, along with Trade and Industry Minister Parks Tau and other government officials. His meeting with Musk also comes at a time when the SA government is looking at opening up the market for Tsla’s Starlink business to enter SA. It is reported that Ramaphosa and Tau have spoken to Musk about even setting up a Tesla Motors plant in SA.
Importantly, the US is deciding whether to extend the country’s participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade deal ahead of South Africa’s hosting of the G20 summit next year. AGOA provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries (including SA currently) with duty-free access to the US market for over 1,800 products.
The G20 is a grouping of some of the world’s major economies, including the likes of the US, UK, Germany, China, France, Brazil, the European Union and, more recently, the African Union.
Earlier, Ramaphosa and Tau – together with Minister of International Relations Ronald Lamola – met executives at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and business bodies including the Business Council for International Understanding.
The US trade visit comes just three weeks after Ramaphosa undertook a similar trade and state visit to China in early September. Tau also attended, together with other key ministers. Following that visit, Tau confirmed that government officials held talks with Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD Co about investing in SA.
The trade mission is Ramaphosa’s first visit to the US since the establishment of SA’s new government of national unity (GNU) in July, after the 2024 elections.
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The US goes to the polls in November, with Republican candidate Donald Trump taking on the Democratic Party’s Kamala Harris. With Trump’s tough talk around trade barriers (duties) for exports into the US, there are fears SA could be excluded from the new Agoa deal in 2025.
