Dear Editor
The DA is concerned that, with under a week remaining to the August 1 deadline, negotiations with the United States on a trade deal remain far from completion.
Minister Tau continues to claim negotiations are advancing, while South Africa is being kept in the dark, without any public updates, worried about the future of businesses.
Minister Parks Tau must conclude a trade deal with the United States before tariffs decimate our economic growth.
South Africa cannot afford a “no-deal” scenario. The economic cost is far too great.
The lives and livelihoods of 100 000 workers on our farms and in our car factories are far too important to be gambled with.
These jobs rest on the shoulders of the Minister and his Department, who have pursued the latest round of negotiations alone and kept the rest of the GNU in the dark.
The DA will welcome a deal with the United States that protects our agriculture and automotive sectors. But the ANC’s recent history gives us little faith: a fired Ambassador, a special envoy who isn’t even on the ground, and minimal action on the looming tariff threat to South African jobs and exports.
The ANC must reflect on its disastrous track record of engagements with the US, which have pushed South Africa further and further away from our second largest trading partner.
The progress of the Jackson Bill through the US Congress, which would permanently damage SA-US relations, falls squarely on the ANC’s foreign policy: non-aligned in name, mis-aligned in practice.
For every car worker in Gqeberha and farm hand in Citrusdal, the DA calls on Minister Tau: get a deal done, and get it done now.
Regards
Toby Chance MP
DA Spokesperson on Trade, Industry and Competition