🇿🇦🇺🇸Agoa, agoing, agoner? Risks of US trade policy for Africa

AGOA expires in 2025, and Washington’s political climate suggests a ‘business-as-usual’ approach is unlikely to suffice.
The future of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is increasingly uncertain as United States (US) industrial policy becomes more nationalistic and securitised, particularly in response to shifting geopolitical, trade and domestic priorities.

Established in 2000, AGOA offers duty-free access to the US market for certain products from eligible sub-Saharan African countries, to encourage economic growth and foster US-Africa relations. However, current and future US policy trends could affect AGOA’s trajectory, potentially damaging African economies.

Several concerns are generating anxiety among African policymakers.

The first is the ongoing shift in US industrial and trade policy. Under both the Trump and Biden administrations, economic nationalism has dominated. US trade has increasingly focused on reshoring supply chains, reducing reliance on foreign production and securing critical industries, particularly in response to competition with China. This could reduce the focus on initiatives like AGOA, especially if they don’t align with US goals of boosting domestic production and securing supply chains.

Moreover, US trade policy is increasingly viewed through a security prism, meaning Africa’s positioning is under greater scrutiny. Should African countries be perceived as drifting into the orbit of China, Russia or other non-Western powers, that could lead to a reassessment of trade incentives under AGOA. South Africa’s ‘Lady R’ debacle offers a clear example. AGOA’s future may be linked to how African countries align with US geopolitical interests.

https://issafrica.org/iss-today/agoa-agoing-agoner-risks-of-us-trade-policy-for-africa

🇿🇦🇲🇿 Mozambique unrest: 'Customs was looted of everything, even Home Affairs computers'

Violent clashes between protesters and police in Mozambique's capital of Maputo intensified on Thursday as thousands of citizens took to the streets.

South Africa has, meanwhile, bolstered law enforcement at the Lebombo border after news emerged that protesters sought to again target the Mozambican side of the border post. The situation on the Mozambican side of the border post, known as kilometre four, would not be easy to fix.

“Customs was looted of everything, even the computers for Home Affairs were stolen. Even if the strike ends today, it will take a month or two for everything to be restored at kilometre four.”

The port of Maputo has been severely impacted as tonnes of coal and chrome are unable to be delivered from South Africa into Mozambique.

🇿🇦🇺🇸 South African far-left party reacts to US elections with falsehoods

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the November 5 elections met a mixed reaction across the African continent, with some critics going so far as to deny democracy in the United States and portraying the nation as a predatory colonial state.

One such example is a highly misleading statement by South Africa's far-left populist opposition Economic Freedom Fighters party (EFF), published on the social media platform X on November 6.

The EFF, South Africa's third-largest political party, is founded and led by controversial figure and social media influencer Julius Malema, known for his radically divisive rhetoric. Malema is occasionally accused of hate speech and corruption, among other assertions, all of which he denies as politically motivated.

In a two-page paper titled EFF's Statement on the Outcome of U.S. Presidential Elections, the party claimed "indifference" to the winner, but went on to portray the U.S. politics as the "worst kind" and "imperial" by nature.

Besides repeating a disputed theory that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency directed the 1961 assassination of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, the statement said the U.S. stands behind the current fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 100 rebel groups are fighting for control over natural resources.

https://www.voanews.com/a/south-african-far-left-party-reacts-to-us-elections-with-falsehoods/7855850.html

🇿🇦🇺🇸I had an opportunity this afternoon to personally extend South Africa's well wishes and congratulations to President-Elect Donald Trump on his election as the 47th President of the United States of America.

During our telephone call, we both agreed on the need to strengthen our trade and political ties. We also look forward to hosting President-Elect Trump during the G20 Heads of State Summit next year.

📎 Cyril Ramaphosa

🇿🇦🧬 South Africa amended its research guidelines to allow for heritable human genome editing

Researchers have voiced concerns after South Africa updated its health-research ethics guidelines to include a new section on heritable (or germline) human genome editing.

Scientists say this could put the nation one step closer to accepting the controversial technique — which involves introducing genetic changes to sperm, eggs or embryos, such that the modifications will be passed down through successive generations. The research ethics guidelines were updated in May, but the news became more widely known last month.

Currently, no country explicitly allows heritable human genome editing in clinical settings. It is not clear to what extent South Africa’s scientific community was consulted on the changes.

Nature has requested comment from South Africa’s department of health, which published the revised guidelines, and from the National Health Research Ethics Council, a statutory body under the National Health Act, which drafted them. No comment was received by the time this article was published.

“The decision to amend the South African Ethics in Health Research Guidelines to facilitate research to create genetically modified children is baffling,” says Françoise Baylis, a bioethicist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada who wrote about the change in an article in The Conversation.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03643-4