SA/US relations to come to the fore with Presidential visit

Friday, June 14, 2013

Pretoria - South Africa’s growing importance in the world as well as its relations with the United States will be one of the highlights of discussions when President Barack Obama visits South Africa later this month.

President Obama is scheduled to visit three countries on his African tour from 26 to 3 July. South Africa will be one of the stops he makes.

The visit, which will be Obama’s second to the region since taking office in 2009, shines a good light on South Africa.

“For the ordinary South African, this [visit] should be seen as some kind of a positive reaction from the Americans, that America recognises that there is no way that it can ignore SA and in his tour of the continent. Obama has seen it fit to come to South Africa,” said senior lecturer and head of International Politics in the Political Sciences department of Unisa, Dr Thabisi Hoeane, on Friday.

The US is a significant investor in South Africa, with about 600 US companies operating within the South African economy which is the largest economy on the African continent.

Following its fortnightly meeting this week, Cabinet welcomed the visit.

“Our strategic political dialogue with the United States continues to positively impact our bilateral relations. The US remains an important trade, investment, tourism and technology partner,” Minister in the Presidency for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Collins Chabane told a media briefing on Thursday.

A statement released by Obama’s office said expanding economic growth, investment, and trade; strengthening democratic institutions and investing in the next generation of African leaders were among issues expected to be discussed during the three-leg tour.

SA, US relationship

“There is going to be a whole range of critical issues which they have to talk about [President Obama and SA President Jacob Zuma]. One of the major things that come to mind is the kind of relationship which the USA has had with South Africa recently where there was this perception that the two were not on good terms.

“That will be one of the issues that they have to confront, that there is this kind of view that in recent years there’s been a frosty relationship between the two countries,” explained Hoeane on Friday.

In a statement last month, the White House said Obama would use his visits to reinforce the importance that the US places on growing ties with countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

South Africa had done some work to have a good relationship with the US, said Hoeane. 

”We cannot afford to have a negative relationship with that country given its dominance within the world. My view would be that yes there have been some differences here and there but it has always been in South Africa’s interest to have good relations with that country,” he added.

The US is one of South Africa’s key trading partners in the world today, and the bilateral trade relationship has maintained a consistent pattern of expansion since 1994. In 2001, the US was South Africa’s largest single trading partner in the world.

Extension of African Growth, Opportunity Act

Last year, the South African government said it would like an extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) for a reasonable amount of time.

"Our overall message as the South African government is that we would like to see a rollover, an extension of Agoa for a reasonable period of time, along more or less the architecture of Agoa at the moment," Trade and Industry (dti) Minister Rob Davies said in August 2012.

Agoa - which offers incentives for African countries to continue their efforts to open their economies and build free markets - was signed into law in May 2000.

Hoeane said the agreement which expires in 2015 is also likely to form part of discussions between the two countries.

Zimbabwean elections

Another topic of discussion might be the upcoming planed Zimbabwean elections on 31 July, according to Hoeane. However the opposition in that country has rejected the idea to hold the polls on that day.

“Zimbabwe might be discussed because it's one of the critical political issues in Southern Africa. Given South Africa’s prominent role in the affairs of that country and that elections are coming, I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of exchanging of views on what is happening there and what should not happen,” he said.

Obama is also scheduled to visit Senegal and Tanzania where he is most likely to be received “quite well,” according to Hoeane. - SAnews.gov.za