Ramaphosa’s critical ‘damage control’ tour starts this week: report

President Cyril Ramaphosa is reportedly set to send a delegation of high-profile ministers to G7 nations this week to settle waters around South Africa’s position on Russia’s war in Ukraine and talk shop over trade agreements.

According to the Sunday Times, citing a high-ranking government official, the tour will start with the United States, where South Africa’s participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has been called into serious question.

However, the official told the paper that the US and AGOA are not the only focus of the tour – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the UK will all be visited, all kinds of bilateral trade talks will happen, and the ministers will discuss the African Leaders Peace Mission in Ukraine and Russia.

The paper said that the high-profile ministers on the team include finance minister Enoch Godongwana, trade and industry minister Ebrahim Patel, and international relations minister Naledi Pandor.

Damage control

While the government source characterises the visits as a wider foreign policy exercise, the move has been prompted by severe missteps by South Africa in the past year in dealing with its most important trade partners.

In particular, many of the G7 countries view South Africa as being pro-Russia – with the US even having gone as far as accusing the country of supplying Russia with arms, sparking concerns over secondary sanctions against South Africa. Investigations into that specific claim are still ongoing.

On 13 June, a letter from prominent congressmen was sent to US officials responsible for national security and foreign relations, urging for South Africa to be removed as the host country for the AGOA conference and raising concerns about South Africa’s role in the Act.

The letter remarked that the docking of the Lady R in Simon’s Town naval base and joint military drills with Russia called into question South Africa’s eligibility for trade benefits under AGOA due to the statutory requirement that beneficiary countries ‘not engage in activities that undermine US national security or foreign policy interests’.

South Africa has steadily moved from being a paragon of peace and upholding human rights to somewhat of a pariah among Western nations over its flaky stance on Russia, and doubts whether, if push came to shove, the country would take any action against Russia.

This led to a market crash in May and early June as investors increased the country’s risk premium in the markets – especially on the back of talk of secondary sanctions against the country – prompting Ramaphosa to hastily establish the African Leaders Peace Mission, which travelled to Ukraine and Russia to call for peace.

AGOA, going, gone?

Meanwhile, South Africa has insisted that it remains neutral and has tried to downplay the importance of some trade agreements – like AGOA – to the economy. According to the Sunday Times, the government’s position is that the US needs South Africa in the trade agreement just as much as the other way around.

Reports have even emerged positing that the agreement isn’t as important as it has been made out to be, representing only a small percentage of South Africa’s exports to the USA and exports in general.

However, business leaders in affected industries disagree.

Leaders in agriculture, transport and other industries which benefit most from the AGOA told the Sunday Times separately that the trade agreement supports billions of rands in beneficial trade and thousands of jobs in South Africa.

Should the trade agreement expire and not be renewed, it would be difficult to maintain investment and jobs – particularly in emerging sectors that are primed for significant growth, they said.

But aside from AGOA, the president’s damage control tour is essential for South Africa to maintain all its trade agreements with its important trading partners – which does not include Russia, whose contribution is dwarfed by the G7.

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