South Africa to Host AGOA Summit Despite Diplomatic Tensions

South Africa will host a U.S.-Africa trade meeting from November 2-4, 2023 despite earlier calls from U.S. politicians for the event to be shifted, due to South Africa's close association with Russia, according to Reuters, writes Jerry Chifamba for AllAfrica. Meanwhile, It is almost certain that South Africa's Agoa status will be renewed despite it and the U.S. often being on opposite sides over geopolitical crises in the past year, Daily maverick reports.

A group of U.S. legislators from the Democratic Party and the Republican Party wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking him to change the meeting venue and accused South Africa of supporting Russia's war in the Ukraine by supplying weapons to Russia for that purpose. The South African government has denied the supply of weapons and maintains that it has adopted a neutral stance on the war.

The legislators warned at the time that the country stood to lose its AGOA status, which allows South Africa duty-free trade on the first 25% of its goods exported to the U.S., wrote Esther Rose for AllAfrica on July 13, 2023.