South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday that the country must prepare for possible exclusion from the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the U.S. trade preferences program for eligible sub-Saharan nations, amid fraying relations between Pretoria and Washington.
“I need, as president, to prepare us if it ever happens,” he said at a press briefing. “So we should not go out and jump off tall buildings and think that this is the end of the world.”
President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that white Afrikaners in South Africa are facing a “white genocide,” an allegation that has been widely debunked by independent fact-checkers, human rights experts and the South African government.
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U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said during AGOA extension discussions last year that he was open to excluding South Africa from the trade initiative, calling it a “unique problem.” He also said South Africa needed to lower tariffs and non-tariff barriers on U.S. goods to secure a reduction in the 30 percent U.S. duties on South African goods.
The president reviews each country’s AGOA eligibility annually and determines its status for the following calendar year. The program, which was renewed in September with benefits backdated to Sept. 30, 2025, is currently extended through the end of 2028, though trade groups and governments have called for a longer term . S. government typically announces any country-level changes or exclusions by late October or early November.
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