Cape Town – President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for the extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) for another 10 years to boost South Africa’s economy.
According to IOL, Ramaphosa said that extending this preferential trade agreement would benefit both South Africa and the United States by creating jobs.
He was addressing the US-South Africa trade and investment business roundtable discussion on the margins of the UN.
Ramaphosa expressed the importance of Agoa to South Africa and mentioned that they are looking to host the Agoa summit in November.
South Africa is preparing to host the AGOA summit next month.President Cyril Ramaphosa met the US Chamber of Commerce on the margins of #UNGA #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/Lf3V6Bmj1i
— Sophie Mokoena (@Sophie_Mokoena) September 19, 2023
South Africa has been actively seeking the extension of Agoa following a diplomatic dispute with the US related to a Russian ship allegedly carrying arms.
“The second enabler for us is the Agoa agreement. We have been participating in this and we see this as a major area for us or a major issue for us. As a participant we are seeing this as mutually beneficial, not only for South Africa but also for the US. Through this Agoa jobs are either sustained or created in the US as they are in South Africa. It may not be in equal numbers, but we see this trade agreement being an important one.
“As you have heard we are looking forward to the extension of Agoa to the current beneficiary countries and South Africa as one of those. We would like to see this being extended for another 10 years and thereafter we can see what happens,” the report quoted Ramaphosa as saying.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
