US trade policy will shift after Obama, Davies tells MPs

CAPE TOWN — SA expects US trade policy to shift under a new president, whether Democrat or Republican, after the November presidential elections.

The administration under President Barack Obama was keen to continue providing eligible African countries with preferential dutyfree access on specified products to the American market and drove an extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).

SA was included in exchange for granting US chicken producers greater access to its market.

Trade and Industry Minister

Clinton and Trump have a distinctly different stance on trade ... to Obama ...

Rob Davies said on Tuesday in Parliament that US trade policy was likely to change because both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump “have a distinctly different stance on trade policy matters to the Obama administration”.

Davies will visit the US in two weeks’ time to participate in the last Agoa forum under Obama.

He told the trade and industry portfolio committee that SA had told the European Commission and its EU trade partners that Britain’s exit from the EU should not result in a reduction in the access enjoyed by its products to the continent.

The timing and terms of the exit have not yet been negotiated, but SA is positioning itself ahead of the event, which will require it to negotiate a separate trade agreement with the UK, which to date has been incorporated into SA’s trade agreement with the EU.

The main element of the economic partnership agreement signed in 2015 between the EU and several southern African states was to determine tariff quotas on products such as sugar and wine, which provided greater access for

So if there is an exit of Britain we don’t expect the tariff quotas to be decreased

South African products.

Davies said he had made the point to the EU that when countries joined the bloc — for example, Croatia most recently — “the tariff quotas are not increased. So if there is an exit of Britain, we don’t expect the tariff quotas to be decreased.

“That is the message we have been sending around. So whatever we negotiate with Britain when it leaves will be different to what the arrangement ought to be with the remainder of the EU.”

Focusing on continental integration, Davies said he had been having informal dialogues with the trade ministers of Kenya, Egypt and Nigeria on how to give more impetus to the process of uniting Africa in a free trade area.

The Southern African Customs Union was involved in negotiations on tariff schedules with the East African Community and Egypt.

SA was also looking to conclude a motor industry agreement with Nigeria in terms of which SA would support its motor industry in exchange for SA supplying inputs and completely-built-up units.