South African government would like to see an extension of African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) beyond 2015 - says Minister Rob Davies
6 Aug 2012
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies says South African Government would like to see a rollover or an extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for a reasonable period of time beyond 2015. He was addressing delegates at the AGOA beneficiaries' conference held in Pretoria today.
The purpose of the conference was to raise awareness of the importance of AGOA for South Africa as well as the United States (US) and to amplify South Africa's lobbying effort on the need for the programme to be extended beyond 2015.
Minister Davies said in terms of bilateral relations AGOA has sustained a pattern of trade between the two countries which is mutually beneficial and that trade took a knock in 2009 as a result of the global economic crisis but it has recovered.
"The US is our third trade partner, and our second partner in terms of destination of our exports and also a very significant investor in South Africa with about six hundred companies operating in the South African economy," said Davies.