"I don’t think there is any serious threat of us losing preferential access to AGOA. AGOA is not a one-way issue, trade is not a one-way issue," Anil Sooklal said at a Bloomberg conference in Johannesburg on Monday.
South Africa has asked the US to consider an early extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which expires in 2025. Tensions also spiked earlier this year when the US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, accused it of supplying arms to Russia — an allegation Pretoria denied. South Africa, which last year exported $2.7 billion of goods using AGOA and the so-called Generalized System of Preferences, will host an AGOA summit later this year.