The Faculty of Management Sciences at CUT hosted Mr Anthony Carroll a Senior Associate at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies to present a lecture on U.S. economic policy and implications for the continent, especially South Africa. 

He spoke about Africa’s Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and what its renewal means for South Africa.  Given the current presidential race and its seemingly protectionist, and somewhat isolationist agenda it remains to be seen whether South Africa (SA) will be competitive with its exports to the U.S. as well as a global value chains in a post-AGOA with specific reference performance. AGOA was passed as part of the Trade and Development Act of 2000 in the USA which provides duty-free access to the USA market for almost all products exported from more than 40 eligible sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries, including South Africa. It is aimed at promoting free-market system, expanding USA African trade and investment, stimulating economic growth and assisting SSA’s integration into the global economy. “50 years ago Africa had about 5% of global trade, by mid-1980’s Africa share of global trade fell to 1%. It was then faced with debt, disease, pandemics of HIV and Aids, what we wanted to do was find a way to accelerate Africa’s inclusion into the global economy,” said Mr Anthony Carrol. 

He also said one of the ways this could be accomplished was to provide a preferential access for African products into the U.S. market. SA is the second largest exporter to the U.S under AGOA, creating 62,000 jobs. Through Generalised System of Preference (GSP) countries that have been supplying goods to the U.S. will no longer be able to supply U.S. market without duty, which opens a gap for SA to revisit the area of leather products especially since these other measures have risen against countries we can compete with. Mr Carroll also spoke about industries in which SA has seen growth in automobiles and agriculture sectors as a result of AGOA. “SA is and can do much more in becoming the supplier of Africa.” After AGOA the next step is to look at a new relationship with SA that would allow the U.S to import some of their products in return to permanent access into the U.S. market. “If we are going to invest in making leather products this is something we are going to count on over the years,” he concluded. 

Images 

1: Mr Anthony Carroll a senior associate at the Centre for strategic and international studies delivering a lecture on AGOA programme and its benefits at CUT on 1 August 2016. 

2: CUT students and representatives of ENACTUS were in attendance to gain insights into what the current trends shaping the country’s economy.