The recent comments made by the Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition, Zuki Godlimpi, at the Export Symposium in Midrand need to be challenged (*)
It is a great pity that National Government has not taken cognisance of the fact that we cannot replace trade with the United States of America overnight, nor would we want to in view of the ease of doing business with our American partners.
This is a relationship built over many years, and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) solidified it.
We only need to look at our neighbour, Lesotho, that built an entire textile industry around it.
One of our best-selling factors from a Western Cape perspective is the weekly direct sailing, with a transit time of 18/20 days Cape Town – Newark. There is no other service that comes close to this.
Even though Maersk pulled out of this trade lane from October 1, MSC, the world’s largest container operator, is continuing on this berth with newer carrier-owned vessels, also on a weekly service.
Citrus industry exports to the USA alone have increased by a whopping 32.25% year-to-date from the Western Cape.
For towns like Citrusdal, this sector is the lifeblood of their community.
In the current economic crisis that our country faces, let alone the unemployment stats that increase daily, how can we be so arrogant as to deny our exporters duty-free access to the biggest consumer-driven market in the world, or at least negotiate a better deal than the current and uncertain 10% duty +30% reciprocal tariff?
We were proactive when we hosted the Agoa conference in SA in November 2023, and we should have taken the initiative to extend Agoa from September 2025, when it expired, for at least another five years.
We now live in a world of uncertainty while the country bleeds jobs, and not 33 000 as the deputy minister indicated.
Market diversification is all good and well in a normal, well-balanced, growing economy, which we are not, and although China, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, the Global South and our Brics friends can come to the party, as the deputy minister has stated, the US remains our most lucrative trading partner to date.
How can we walk away from this? It does not make good business sense.
Perhaps the comment that the minister addressed a mostly empty hall at Gallagher Estate says it all.
As the Exporters Western Cape we have extended invitations to both the minister and deputy minister that have gone nowhere.
* See the related news piece here: SA must shift focus away from US trade challenge – Godlimpi
