A US House committee will on Wednesday consider a three-year extension to Washington’s flagship trade initiative for Africa which lapsed in September, but South Africa risks being excluded amid tensions between Pretoria and the Trump administration.
Ties have deteriorated this year with a row over trade and as President Donald Trump has frequently criticised South Africa for its domestic laws addressing racial inequality.
The House committee meeting is the most significant progress Congress has made towards renewing the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), but its ultimate prospects remain unclear.
The law was first enacted in 2000 to provide duty-free access to the US market for eligible Sub-Saharan countries and products, and hundreds of thousands of African jobs are estimated to depend on it.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Tuesday the Trump administration was open to a one-year extension but might exclude South Africa, which he described as a “unique problem”.
He said South Africa needed to lower tariffs and non-tariff barriers on US products in order
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