South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters Tuesday outside his country’s embassy in Washington, DC, that the goal of his visit to the U.S. is “a really good trade deal” with President Donald Trump.
However, South Africa has offered none of the compromises Trump has sought. Worse, South Africa is already in violation of its existing trade deal with the U.S., the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
AGOA extends preferential trade conditions to dozens of nations in sub-Saharan Africa to help them achieve faster economic growth. However, it requires beneficiaries to refrain from harming U.S. national interests.
The text explicitly states that the President of the United States can determine which countries are eligible for AGOA membership based on several criteria. Beneficiaries must have a “market-based economy that protects private property rights”; must provide “equal protection under the law”; must adopt “a system to combat corruption and bribery”; and most not ” engage in activities that undermine United States national security or foreign policy interests.” Nor can member states “provide support for acts of international terrorism.”
South Africa is in violation of each of these provisions. Its new Expropriation Act, which allows the state to seize property without compensation, violates private property rights. Its racial discrimination against white people, in both employment and ownership, violate principles of equal protection under the law. Its pattern of corruption — virtually unpunished, despite ample evidence and investigations — also violate AGOA. And in accusing Israel, falsely, of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), while backing the tyrannical Iranian regime and even Hamas, South Africa violates U.S. foreign policy and supports Palestinian terror.
Just three months ago, Ramaphosa attacked Trump in an op-ed for applying sanctions to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has tried to prosecute American soldiers, without haveing jurisdiction to do so.
So while Ramaphosa wants “a really good trade deal,” he has given President Trump very little reason to trust him. Nor has Ramaphosa offered to compromise on any of the South African policies listed above. Instead, he seems to think he will lecture Trump on why his views of South Africa are the product of “misinformation.”
Ramaphosa may be content to pose for photos with Trump, confident that the anti-American elites in the South African media will congratulate him merely for having a meeting at all. But the rude awakening will come when there is no deal — let alone “a really good trade deal” — and Trump sticks to his policies: no aid for South Africa; no participation in the South African-hosted G20 meeting at the end of the year; and no end to the policy of inviting Afrikaner refugees to make the United States their home.
There is still time to salvage Ramaphosa’s visit. Offer to amend the Expropriation Act; to exempt foreign companies from racial quotas in hiring and ownership; enforce hate speech laws against the anti-white rhetoric of South African leaders like Julius Malema; withdraw from the ICJ case against Israel; and join international pressure against Iran.
These are not difficult compromises to make, and they are all in South Africa’s own interest, independent of what Trump wants. But as long as Ramaphosa does nothing, a “really good trade deal” will remain elusive.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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