Uncertainty over Trump's stance on AGOA

It is of vital importance that that the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) be upheld following the recent US presidential election, in which Donald Trump emerged as the winner.

- Annelie Coleman

This was according to South African trade union Solidarity, which said that one in 37 South African households relied on exports to the US to put food on the tables.

According to the Congressional Research Service in the US, AGOA was a nonreciprocal US trade preference programme that provided duty-free access to the US market for most exports from eligible sub-Saharan African countries.

Theuns du Buisson, economic researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute, said in a statement that South Africa couldn’t afford to be excluded from the trade agreement.