AGOA: CLARITY NEEDED ON SOUTH AFRICA’s ELIGIBILITY TO CONTINUE BENEFITTING FROM THE PROGRAMME

AGOA: CLARITY NEEDED ON SOUTH AFRICA’s ELIGIBILITY TO CONTINUE BENEFITTING FROM THE PROGRAMME

• 07 November 2023
• Trade, Industry & Competition
• SA Legal Academy

‘The African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) Forum has concluded with no certainty on whether the agreement will be extended, on whether its design will be changed, or whether South Africa will continue to enjoy its benefits.’ This is according to a media statement issued on 5 November 2023 by Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Dion George. Unfortunately, the statement appears to contradict itself in a fourth paragraph ending with the assertion that the country’s membership ‘was renewed for 2024’.

If that is, indeed, the case, there has been no such announcement from the Department of Trade, Industry & Competition (DTIC).

In fact, the department’s most recent official statement on the Agoa focuses on the 2-4 November 2023 annual forum and was issued three days after its conclusion. No mention is made of the outcome of this year’s review of South Africa’s eligibility to remain a participant in the Agoa programme during 2024.

The review’s initiation was announced in May 2023 with hearings held two months later. A document presented on 26 September 2023 to members of two parliamentary committees dealing with matters of trade and industry noted that a report was expected ‘during November 2023’.

At the time, ‘immediate challenges’ raised by ‘US corporations’ to South Africa’s ongoing participation in the Agoa programme had apparently related to ‘copyright laws and trade access involving agricultural products’.

Presumably, this was a reference to submissions from:

• the App Association, whose members are concerned about:
  • the implications of the Competition Commission’s online intermediary platforms market inquiry for ‘the functionality of mobile operating systems and software distribution platforms that have enabled countless American small businesses to grow’, and
  • the ‘ineffectiveness’ of South African ‘copyright law’ and ‘new’ intellectual property policy
• the International Intellectual Property Association, whose members believe that, if enacted and implemented, the Copyright Amendment Bill will undermine South Africa’s ability to fulfil its obligation under the Agoa to adequately protect intellectual property rights, and
• the National Pork Producers Council, whose members believe South Africa’s ‘unjustified barriers’ to US pork fly in the face of its obligation under the Agoa to eliminate barriers to US trade and investment.

Please click the inks below for more information:

• May 2023 announcement of the initiation of the annual review of the eligibility of sub-Saharan African countries to receive Agoa benefits for 2024 
• agenda for the July 2023 virtual public hearing
• DTIC presentation to parliamentary committees
• The App Association submission
• International Intellectual Property Association submission 
• National Pork Producers Council submission
• DA media statement
• DTIC media statement

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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