JOHANNESBURG - Cosatu urged the government on Tuesday to directly engage with the United States to rescue a trade deal on which thousands of jobs depend.
Washington announced Monday it would remove South Africa and Rwanda from the Africa-US trade preference programme from January 1, citing practices that created "barriers".
This could cost between 3,000 and 10,000 jobs in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, a representative of the trade union federation told AFP.
Some of the companies most at risk are based in small towns, for example the citrus-producing areas of the Western Cape province, Matthew Parks said.
"There's a danger of creating ghost towns," said Parks, the federation's parliamentary coordinator.
It is critical the government "put in place an urgent package of support for at-risk workers, companies, industries and communities", Cosatu said.
About 10 percent of South African exports to the US entered under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) programme in 2025, Trade Minister Parks Tau said Monday.
South Africa's largest trade union federation has urged the government to use the period before the exit takes effect to negotiate "a favourable set of solutions to avert this potential blow to the South African economy and jobs".
"We are meeting with government to encourage them to go to the US, use the next 60 days to negotiate a possible package deal," Parks said. "That'll be critical."
"We also need to make clear to the US as well that some of the benefits they have enjoyed with South Africa through AGOA would also be at risk of expiry."
Washington is, for example, keen to continue to import critical minerals from South Africa, he said.
"It's a two-way street."
- AFP