The Western Cape Government has prioritised protecting the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act shared between South Africa and the United States as tension and talk of punishing South Africa’s Russian ties reaches a fever point.
As a result of the possible economic headwinds this could bring to the surface, Western Cape premier Alan Winde is leading a delegation of the WCG to the US intending to further promote trade and investment with the province. “We are demonstrating through a series of meetings in Washington DC that our delegation has held so far that as a province, we value the benefits AGOA has brought to our region and country,” said Winde.
Winde said that if South Africa was to lose membership to the Act, the Western Cape would suffer greater losses compared to the rest of the country as a result of higher trade tariffs which have been tempered by AGOA.