South Africa is expected to lose its AGOA status, according to a group of US congressmen from both the Democratic and Republican parties, who have petitioned the White House to shift this year’s AGOA summit elsewhere.
25% of South African exports to the US, SA’s second-largest trading partner after China, are allowed duty-free entry under AGOA.
A letter dated June 9 was issued to US Secretaries of State Antony Blinken, Katherine Tai (Trade Representative), and Jacob Sullivan (National Security Advisor).
The group said:
The New York Times published a piece about the letter for the first time on Tuesday morning.
The group of lawmakers, which includes Republican Michael McCaul, head of the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, and Democratic Senator Chris Coons, chair of the Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, accuse South Africa of strengthening its military ties with Russia over the previous 12 months.
“Late last year, a Russian cargo vessel subject to US sanctions docked in South Africa’s largest naval port, and intelligence suggests that the South African government used this opportunity to covertly supply Russia with arms and ammunition that could be used in its illegal war in Ukraine.”
The South African government has refuted the accusation, and President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered a separate probe into it.
The organisation further notes that in April, South Africa gave permission for a Russian military cargo jet that was subject to US sanctions to land at a South African air force facility. South Africa also conducted joint military drills with China and Russia.
In addition, South Africa, which will host the BRICS Summit, is “working to facilitate” Vladimir Putin’s attendance. A warrant for Putin’s arrest has been issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in connection with allegations of the forcible removal of minors from Ukraine to Russia. South Africa would have to detain him because it signed the ICC agreement.
“These actions by South Africa call into question its eligibility for trade benefits under AGOA due to the statutory requirement that beneficiary countries not engage in activities that undermine United States national security or foreign policy interests,” the group says.
It went on to say that it was extremely worried that having the AGOA Forum in South Africa in 2023 would amount to that country’s “implicit endorsement” of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and would even be a breach of US sanctions law.
The termination of AGOA would be particularly devastating to South African auto exports. With vehicles and component exports to the US totalling R24 billion in 2022, it was SA’s second-largest overall automotive export market.
In his youth, Coons volunteered with the South African Council of Churches, which was then led by the late Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. Coons has strong ties to South Africa. He wrote a book in 1986 about the anti-apartheid movement at US universities and how it affected South Africa.
