14 Aug SA likely to keep AGOA status because US companies are benefitting, envoy says
South Africa will likely keep its preferential access to US markets because hundreds of American firms are also benefitting, according to the nation’s ambassador to BRICS.
“I don’t think there is any serious threat of us losing preferential access to AGOA. AGOA is not a one-way issue, trade is not a one-way issue,” Anil Sooklal said at a Bloomberg conference in Johannesburg on Monday.
“You have 600 US companies doing business in South Africa. Are they going to turn their backs on that?”
South Africa has asked the US to consider an early extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which expires in 2025.
But some US lawmakers have pushed the Biden administration to review South Africa’s access to AGOA, amid frustration over the country’s non-aligned position toward Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and because they deem it too developed to qualify.
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