Davies and Zuma must take blame for AGOA disaster
04 January 2016
The news that South Africa has missed the deadline set by US President Barack Obama in November 2015, for us to comply with our AGOA commitments, shows clearly and finally that Minister Rob Davies and President Jacob Zuma simply aren’t interested in the South African economy. If they were, they would never have allowed this to happen. The coming exclusion of South Africa’s agricultural exports from AGOA benefits is bleak news for our economy, and is the worst possible way to begin 2016. It is especially bleak for South African farmers and farm workers who are already suffering from the worst drought in decades.
This is a failure of political leadership by Minister Davies, Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi and, ultimately, President Zuma. When, not if, unemployment goes up and farms close down due to this missed deadline, Minister Davies will have to take the blame.
At his press briefing today, Minister Davies again argued that a deal was very close, that negotiations are “in extra time”, and that just a few more days are needed. This has been his line since July 2015. It is just not credible anymore. The fact is that the negotiations have been in “extra time” for at least 4 months. He should not have allowed it to go so far. If the original October timeline had been honoured, we would not be in this position today. Instead, through rank tardiness and lack of leadership, every single deadline has been missed, with grave consequences for our economy.
For his part, Minister Motsoaledi had more than enough time to put credible proposals together on how to protect South Africans from threats to human health by animal-born pathogens. It would’ve been a simple application of the mind to get both South Africa and the USA to have animal or plant based food products conform to global health norms. But it is not a science problem. It is a problem of poor planning and inter-ministerial dysfunctionality.
As such the Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, in his capacity as Leader of Government Business, should investigate why it is that the national government responds so poorly to deadlines, especially when so much is at stake.
Minister Davies’ credibility in the negotiating chambers of world trade is irreparably damaged as a result of this negligence – he has shown that South Africa and he, as our trade representative, cannot be trusted to meet our commitments, even when given months and months of “extra time”. His commitment that all remaining points of negotiation will be concluded by the end of the week is the latest in a long line of such commitments. We hope this time it is true, but frankly at this point, we’ll believe it when we see it.
Minister Davies and President Zuma must bear responsibility for the damage this will do to the economy. They have shown, in the first week of 2016, how little they care about protecting South African jobs and helping our economy.
Statement issued by Geordin Hill-Lewis MP, DA Shadow Minister of Trade and Industry, 4 January 2016
