South Africa is playing with fire and and we know if you play with fire you will get burned at some point. The current naval exercise being conducted at the Simons Town Naval base in Cape Town involving South Africa, China, Russia and Iran is obviously not going to go unnoticed and rightly so. I said this years ago SA is no friend of the West, especially the US and despise everything the West stands for. SA towed the line only when the hand outs were taking place and now those foreign payments have come to an end has the government showed their true colors. The Iran Navy with the SA Navy is a suicidal move and has to be the most stupidest thing these morons have done.
Two days ago there was a local news article stating the AGOA agreement was still looking positive with a vote in the US House of Representatives voting in favor of renewal 340 to 54. The problem is the AGOA agreement needs to be voted in by the US Senate and then signed by Trump. For those that do not know the AGOA stands for the African Growth and Opportunity Act which is allowing countries in sub Saharan Africa free trade access to the US markets. This would make the tariffs a complete joke as what is the point if those tariffs were watered down by a free trade agreement. This is why the AGOA agreement cannot pass the Senate or signed off by Trump.
Roughly 22% of the SA trade to the US benefits from the AGOA agreement and is responsible for employing nearly 500 000 people. The SA government is hoping that the US is concerned about Chinas involvement in Africa and spreading the Chinese influence. China is already cemented in Africa because the majority of countries are corrupt and have sold out already.
The beauty about the AGOA agreement is it allows the US Government to lay out the specific details for the agreement to remain intact. SA would have no option but to comply and we already know what those conditions would be. Scrapping of BEE for US companies operating or investing in SA and cutting all ties with Iran. There will be other conditions specified, but these will be the crucial ones and will be the ones which will stop AGOA in it's tracks.
The SA government doing Naval drills with the Chinese and Russians is bad enough ,but including Iran was the dumbest move ever. Today Trump announced all countries trading with Iran will receive an extra 25% tariff when trading with the US. This order is non negotiable and is final.
SA exports coal, tyres and medical instruments to Iran which has been declining whilst the imports from Iran has been gradually increasing.
Interesting to look at the import export figures.
SA Trade to Iran R359 million export and R64 million imported.
SA Trade to Russia R5.4 billion export and R10 billion imported.
SA Trade to USA R157 billion export and R120 billion imported.
Why would you risk your economy for R359 million exporting to Iran which is literally roughly $22 million when converted versus nearly $10 billion dealing with the USA.
The entire SA economy is at risk with nearly 5% of all employment in SA hinging on the trade with the USA. I am amazed at the ignorance trying to push articles giving hope with AGOA when it is a non starter. What does SA expect to happen when Iran is still under sanctions yet they are openly trading with them.